Listen Up

If you want something be sure to ask in a persons right ear and not their left ear.

From Wired...

You’re in a loud and sweaty Italian dance club when a woman approaches you. To be heard over the techno, she leans in close and yells into your ear, “Hai una sigaretta?”

If she spoke into your right ear, you would be twice as likely to give her a cigarette than if she asked by your left ear, according to a new.

What’s surprising about the study is that ear choice had such a decided impact on the behavior of participants in a natural setting. Why would people feel more generous when their right ears are addressed?

Marzoli and Tommasi write that some work has shown that the left and right hemispheres of the brain appear to be tuned for positive and negative emotions, respectively. Talk into the right ear and you send your words into a slightly more amenable part of the brain.

I'm hardly ever in a loud and sweaty dance club these days and I don't smoke so it'll be a rare opportunity when I have a chance to whisper into someone's ear, unless of course it's my wife's.

Hmmm, on second thought I should definitely keep this in mind!