Bring Refreshments to Your Meetings
Or schedule them for directly after lunch. Especially with an "uphill battle" on the agenda. Especially especially if it's a job interview.
Why? Well, Shai Danziger, Jonathan Levav, and Liora Avnaim-Pesso, in their study of parole judge decisions, found that how recently the judges had eaten had a profound impact on what decisions they made.
"We record the judges’two daily food breaks, which result in segmenting the deliberations of the day into three distinct “decision sessions.” We find that the percentage of favorable rulings drops gradually from ≈65% to nearly zero within each decision session and returns abruptly to ≈65% after a break."
The study is called "Extraneous factors in judicial decisions" and was published in 2011 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (PNAS April 26, 2011 vol. 108 no. 17 6889-6892.)
Other studies indicate that even a sugary drink (no, not a diet drink) can have the same positive effect.
So consider it a red flag if you learn, as you start a challenging discussion, or your counterpart mentions, that they haven't had time for lunch today, or had to skip breakfast.
Or, just prevent all possible doubt, stack the deck in your favor, and schedule your most important, challenging meetings over breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Why? Well, Shai Danziger, Jonathan Levav, and Liora Avnaim-Pesso, in their study of parole judge decisions, found that how recently the judges had eaten had a profound impact on what decisions they made.
"We record the judges’two daily food breaks, which result in segmenting the deliberations of the day into three distinct “decision sessions.” We find that the percentage of favorable rulings drops gradually from ≈65% to nearly zero within each decision session and returns abruptly to ≈65% after a break."
The study is called "Extraneous factors in judicial decisions" and was published in 2011 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (PNAS April 26, 2011 vol. 108 no. 17 6889-6892.)
Other studies indicate that even a sugary drink (no, not a diet drink) can have the same positive effect.
So consider it a red flag if you learn, as you start a challenging discussion, or your counterpart mentions, that they haven't had time for lunch today, or had to skip breakfast.
Or, just prevent all possible doubt, stack the deck in your favor, and schedule your most important, challenging meetings over breakfast, lunch, or dinner.