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Two graduate economics students from Washington State University used Twitter to analyze how sports pundits' reputation was affected by their confidence and accuracy at predicting the outcomes to sporting events. They analysed tweets in which professional pundits and fans made predictions about the winners of a series of high-profile baseball and American Football matches. Each tweet was given a "confidence" rating depending on its language, with words like "destroy" and "annihilate" scoring higher than "beat", for example. Both the pundits and fans' predictions were worse than chance, with the professional analysts only proving correct 47 per cent of the time and amateurs 45 per cent of the time. Yet pundits' confidence was measured as 50 per cent higher than amateurs, and they gained more followers on the networking website as a result, the researchers said. Presenting their findings at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Economics and Finance earlier this year, the researchers explained that being confident could increase a pundit's following by 17 per cent, while predicting every game correctly only raised it by 3.4 per cent.There was a similar pattern among amateurs, with brash people increasing their following by 20 per cent but correct guesses only raising it by 7.3 per cent. In general, pundits are better served by being brash and making people excited, they claimed.

Social media-from Facebook to Twitter-have made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic)-and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill. Social interaction matters. Loneliness and being alone are not the same thing, but both are on the rise. We meet fewer people. We gather less. And when we gather, our bonds are less meaningful and less easy. The decrease in confidants-that is, in quality social connections-has been dramatic over the past 25 years. In one survey, the mean size of networks of personal confidants decreased from 2.94 people in 1985 to 2.08 in 2004. Similarly, in 1985, only 10 percent of Americans said they had no one with whom to discuss important matters, and 15 percent said they had only one such good friend. By 2004, 25 percent had nobody to talk to, and 20 percent had only one confidant.

Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how "power posing" - standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don't feel confident - can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.

This article provides useful tips on how to confidently present a memorable story. Storytelling is essential to our human identity, helping us who we are. And sharing a tale with an audience can be immensely rewarding. But for novices, it can also be terrifying. Fear of speaking in public is very common. A great many of the world's greatest performers have struggled with powerful stage fright. The article aims to help you build your confidence and find your own voice.

"Individuals perform better and are more confident when they practice motivational tactics focused not on them but on the team they belong to... 80 subjects were randomly assigned to three different groups before completing a team-based dart-throwing activity... performance indicators and confidence in the team were all greatest for individuals who practiced self-talk focusing on the group's capabilities"

Learn how to remove filler words from formal speeches to present with confidence.

If you've ever forgotten a word just as you were about to say it, you've experienced the Tip-of-the-Tounge phenomenon. Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is the subjective feeling that people have of being confident that they know the target word for which they are searching, yet they cannot recall this word. Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is one kind of metacognition (meaning you are aware of you're cognitive processes), that involves a feeling of knowing the word you're searching for. This phenomenon appear to occur when one is having a breakdown in the intermediate stage of lexical retrieval.

We start building our sense of people's personalities from the first words they utter. Phil McAleer, of the University of Glasgow, ran an experiment where he recorded 64 people, men and women, from Glasgow, reading a paragraph that included the word "hello." He then extracted all the hellos and got 320 participants to listen to the different voices and rate them on 10 different personality traits, such as trustworthiness, aggressiveness, confidence, dominance and warmth. Interestingly, participants largely agreed on which voice matched which personality trait. One male voice was overwhelmingly voted the least trustworthy. The pitch of the untrustworthy voice was much lower than the male deemed most trustworthy. McAleer says this is probably because a higher pitched male voice is closer to the natural pitch of a female, making the men sound less aggressive and friendlier than the lower male voices. What makes females sound more trustworthy is whether their voices rise or fall at the end of the word, says McAleer. "Probably the trustworthy female, when she drops her voice at the end, is showing a degree of certainty and so can be trusted." (Perhaps a reason to avoid uptalk, if you're female?)

This study shows the science behind first impressions, and how certain voices can affect first impressions.

A new study by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, authors of the New York Times bestseller Crucial Conversations, shows nearly everyone has either seen or suffered from a catastrophic comment. Specifically, 83 percent have witnessed their colleagues say something that has had catastrophic results on their careers, reputations and businesses. Here are the top 5 blunders: 1) SUICIDE BY FEEDBACK: You thought others could handle the truth-but they didn't. 2) GOSSIP KARMA: You talked about someone or something in confidence with a colleague only to have your damning comments made public. 3) TABOO TOPICS: What it looks like: You said something about race, sex, politics or religion that you thought was safe, but others distorted it, misunderstood it, took it wrong, used it against you, etc. 4) WORD RAGE: You lost your temper and used profanity or obscenities to make your point. 5) "REPLY ALL" BLUNDERS. You accidentally shared something harmful via technology (email, text, virtual meeting tools, etc).

"People who use unnecessarily complicated language in their writing are perceived as less competent and confident than those who used simpler language". In recent studies, researchers have found that "the authors of the essays with complicated language were rated lower than the authors of the essays with simpler language".

When babies point their fingers in the air, there are meanings to their gestures. Pointing is an early sign of communication, before they even start talking. It's important to foster their learning by starting with their gestures and talking to them while they move. When you mirror your child, it will help them grow confidence and show them that communication is important and effective

There are many ways that what you do with your body can translate into a language to show what you are feeling. Words are not neccesary for others to know the type of person you are. By reading actions, people can know if you are fit for a job or your characteristics.

Body language is extremely important when in a leadership position. You may not think what you're doing with your head or hands is important, but studies show that everything from a head tilt, to walking on stage gives people a certain impression. For people to see you as a good leader, you need to be confident and aware of your actions. If you are on stage talking to a bunch of people, and you are playing with your hair or touching your neck, people pick up on this and make the assumption that you are nervous. It may not be intentional but subconsciously they think you are intimated even though a leader should be calm and controlled. This article explores other ways leaders and speakers can use body language to more powerfully convey their point.

The problem of looking at our devices nonstop is physiological and social. The average human head weighs between 10 and 12 pounds, and when we bend our neck to use digital devices, the gravitational pull on our head and the stress on our neck increases to as much as 60 pounds of pressure. That common position leads to incremental loss of the curve of the cervical spine. Posture has been proven to affect mood, behavior and memory, and frequent slouching can make us depressed, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The way we stand affects everything from the amount of energy we have to bone and muscle development, and even the amount of oxygen our lungs can take in. A study in 2010 found that adolescents ages 8 to 18 spent more than 7.5 hours a day consuming media. In 2015, the Pew Research Center reported that 24 percent of teenagers are "almost constantly" online. Adults aren't any better: Most adults spend 10 hours a day or more consuming electronic media, according to a Nielsen's Total Audience Report from last year. "Mobile devices are the mother of inattentional blindness," said Henry Alford, the author of "Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That: A Modern Guide to Manners." "That's the state of monomaniacal obliviousness that overcomes you when you're absorbed in an activity to the exclusion of everything else." Children now compete with their parents' devices for attention, resulting in a generation afraid of the spontaneity of a phone call or face-to-face interaction. Eye contact now seems to be optional, Dr. Turkle suggests, and sensory overload can often mean our feelings are constantly anesthetized. Researchers at the University of Michigan claim empathy levels have plummeted while narcissism is skyrocketing, with emotional development, confidence and health all affected

As a human being, you are constantly talking to yourself, having an inner monologue with yourself. It's called self-talk. Self-talk is an internal dialogue that can affect your confidence and self-esteem. One kind of this is positive self-talk, a personal (mental) conversation with a positive mental attitude towards your life and yourself.

Reinforcing good behavior while discouraging disobedience and anti-social behavior generally produces positive results in children. Positive reinforcement helps children feel good about their choices, which motivates them to increase the behaviors that bring rewards. Praise and positive reinforcement usually produces both short-term and long-term positive results. This article talks about how positive reinforcement and encouragement from a young age affects the development of the character of a child.

This short article discusses the fact that being bilingual should not be looked down upon and rather be encouraged by those who are not. More individuals should attempt to learn more than one language as there are many benefits. "Instead of looking down, inadvertently or intentionally, at children whose first language is not English, and discouraging their self-confidence, let's look to them as our teachers."

This article explains why filler words, such as "like," "um," "uh," "you know" and "yeah", are used so extensively when we speak in conversation. What studies have own through this article is that the use of filler words has increased over the past 30 years. There are many factors that contribute to the utilization of filler words. As we know, there is no actual need for filler words, but nervousness and lack of confidence does play a factor in why filler words are used so much . Another reason we use filler words is because we are unsure about the topic of a specific conversation. Studies showed that when talking about a topic that is complex or that the subject is unfamiliar with, they tend to use more filler words as opposed to when a subject is talking about themselves or a simple topic.

Teachers can use music to deepen the learning environment in a literacy classroom. Many commonalities exist between music and literacy, especially in the pre-K to second grade years, and therefore music education is a vital element in children's literary development. Here are some areas that reading and music both address: 1. Development of auditory processes 2. Visual decoding processes 3. Vocabulary growth occurs whenever students are exposed to new material, like a story or a song. Putting new information into a musical context can also help student memory. 4. Poetry: vocal music is essentially poetry set to a melody 5. Building confidence in performance, whether it's vocal or instrumental.