GoanTimes August, 9 2019

10 Leisure
Friday, August 09, 2019 | www.goantimes.titosgoa.com | 12 Pages
Most people would return wallet with
more cash in it: Study
The group of 13 research assistants visited banks, theatres, hotels, police stations and other public spaces and
turned in a ‘lost wallet,’ which they claimed to have found on the street, to a nearby employee.
Will you return a lost wallet with Rs
6,000 in it to its right owner? Even if
you do not intend to return a loaded
wallet, most people would still do so
especially when the wallet has more
cash in it, reveals an interesting study.
For the lost wallets with over Rs 6,000
inside, an impressive 72 per cent of
people tried to return them, revealed
the study published in the journal
Science that involved 13 research
assistants “losing 17,000” wallets
with various sums of money in 355
cities across 40 countries. The social
experiment took three years and over
half a million dollars to complete.
“People want to see themselves as an
honest person, not as a thief. Keeping
a found wallet means having to adapt
one’s self-image, which comes with
psychological costs,” Michel Maréchal,
Professor at University of Zurich, was
quoted as saying in reports.
The group of 13 research assistants
visited banks, theatres, hotels, police
stations and other public spaces and
turned in a ‘lost wallet,’ which they
claimed to have found on the street, to
a nearby employee.
Flipkart takes on
Amazon, Netflix
with free video
streaming service
BENGALURU: Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart
plans to start a free Indian video
streaming service in coming months,
escalating a fight with Amazon.com Inc.
by borrowing its arch-foe’s tactics.
India’s biggest online retailer plans to
roll out video streaming for members
of its Flipkart Plus loyalty program by
September ahead of the peak Diwali
shopping season, people familiar with
its plans said. The service is currently in
beta mode, the people said, asking not to
be identified discussing internal strategy.
In a departure from Amazon Prime,
Flipkart Plus video-streaming will come
free just like its no-subscription fee
loyalty program. Flipkart shoppers can
become members by amassing 300 “super
coins," at a rate of 2 for every Rs. 100
spent on its platform. Users can exchange
those tokens for items from flight
tickets and food delivery to car rentals
and music streaming subscriptions.
Flipkart won’t initially produce
originals -- a route that’s proven costly
for online platforms including Netflix
Inc. -- and instead license content from
the likes of Walt Disney Co. and local
studios such as Balaji Telefilms, the
people said. In-house content could come
later, they added. The news was reported
earlier Monday by Money Control.
The researchers examined four
factors that influence the decision
to return the wallet: The monetary
incentive to keep the money, the effort
involved in contacting the owner,
altruistic considerations about the
welfare of the owner, and what is
known as the “psychological costs of
dishonest behaviour”.
The latter are caused by the fact that
keeping a lost wallet is often perceived
as theft, and the finder has to adapt
their self-image.
The researchers were able to show
that these psychological costs, i.e. the
preservation of one’s self-image as an
honest person, can explain the finders’
behaviour.
According to the study, in countries
such as Switzerland, Norway, the
Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden,
between 70 and 85 per cent of the
wallets were returned to their owners.
The Swiss are the most honest
when it comes to returning wallets
containing a key but no money.
Danes, Swedes and New Zealanders
were even more honest when the
wallets contained larger sums.
In countries such as China, Peru,
Kazakhstan and Kenya, on average,
only between eight and 20 per cent of the
wallets were returned to their owners.
Although the proportion of returned
wallets varied widely between
countries, in almost all countries,
wallets with large sums of money or
valuable contents were more likely to
be returned, said the researchers.
“We mistakenly assume that our
fellow human beings are selfish. In
reality, their self-image as an honest
person is more important to them than
a short-term monetary gain,” said
Alain Cohn, Assistant Professor at
University of Michigan.
Digital games better than
mindfulness apps to ease stress
A new U.K. study finds that digital
games, typical of those used on
smartphones, may outperform
mindfulness apps when it comes to
relieving work-related stress.
Researchers from University College
London (UCL) and the University of
Bath ga ve a 15-minute math test to 45
student participants, ages 19 to 36, to
induce a sense of work strain.
Next, the participants played either
a shape-fitting game called “Block!
Hexa Puzzle” or used the Headspace
mindfulness app for 10 minutes.
Participants in the control group were
given a fidget-spinner toy.
In a survey before and after using the
game, app or toy, the volunteers rated
on a four-point scale how tired and
energetic they felt.
According to the findings, published
in the journal JMIR Mental Health,
participants who played the shapefitting
game reported feeling more
energized and less tired afterwards,
while those in the mindfulness and
fidget-spinner groups reported the
opposite: Their level of “energetic
arousal” appeared to decline.
In a second part of the study, a
different group of 20 participants
played either the shape-fitting game
or used the Headspace mindfulness
app after arriving home from work for
five days straight. After finishing the
activities, the participants completed
an online survey.
While no differences were found
between the two groups in terms of
how energized participants felt, the
shape-fitting game appeared to offer
increasing benefits throughout the
week in terms of “recovery experience”
— that is, to what degree participants
felt relaxed, detached, in control and
able to improve their skills.
This was measured by asking
participants to what extent they
agreed with statements such as
“During the activity, I forgot about
work.” Surprisingly, participants who
followed a beginners’ course on the
Headspace mindfulness app scored
progressively less well on this measure
throughout the five days.
“Far from feeling guilty about being
absorbed by their phone, people who
play such games after a stressful day at
work should know they are likely to be
gaining a real benefit,” said study coauthor
Professor Anna Cox from UCL
Interaction Centre.
The authors noted that digital games
appear to fulfill four criteria necessary
for post-work recovery: they tend to be
relaxing, they provide opportunities
for mastering a new skill, they are
highly immersive and distracting, and
they allow people to feel in control.
The researchers also noted that the
level of enjoyment of the digital game
was tied to the amount of benefit it
offered in terms of post-work recovery.
“To protect our long-term health
and well-being, we need to be able to
unwind and recuperate after work,”
said lead author Dr. Emily Collins from
the University of Bath, who started
the research while at UCL. “Our study
suggests playing digital games can be
an effective way to do this.”
Source: University of Bath
Hazardous asteroid
bigger than Empire
State building to pass
earth on August 10
On August 10th, an asteroid, which is
roughly 569 metres in diameter, will fly
by the Earth. The asteroid, 2006 QQ23
is as big as the Empire State Building
and is considered a NEO (Near-Earth
Object). The 2006 QQ23 will fly within
0.049 astronomical units (1 AU =
Distance between Earth and the Sun) at
about 16,740 kmph.
The object being within 0.5 AU of Earth
and greater than 140 meters in diameter
has been labeled as a potentially
hazardous object. The asteroid though,
is not considered as a threat and has
been called more or less benign by
Lindley Johnson and Kelly Fast of
NASA’s Planetary Defence Coordination
Office, responsible for tracking near-
Earth objects in our Solar System.
Asteroids and meteors are said to
fly by the Earth and Moon all the time
and are not considered a threat. The
few fragments that do enter the Earth
explode on atmospheric entry and lead
to bright meteor showers. Meteorites
are remnants of these fragments are
found on Earth’s Surface. Most of these
objects do not pose a threat but are
constantly monitored to ensure they
don’t turn into a threat.
Poco F1 gets another
price cut for top-end
variants, 128GB now
starts from Rs 18,999
The Poco F1 has received numerous
price cuts in the last one year and Xiaomi
has dropped the prices again. This time
though, it's for the higher-end variants
that come with 128GB and 256GB
storage. Xiaomi has dropped prices by
up to Rs 6,000 on the F1, thereby making
it exceptional value compared to other
new phones in its price range.
The 128GB variant has received a
price cut of Rs 2,000, thereby bringing
the price down to Rs 18,999 in India.
This is just Rs 1,000 more than the 64GB
variant which retails for Rs 17,999. The
128GB variant only gets 6GB RAM at
the moment. If you want more, you can
go for the 256GB variant that comes
with 8GB RAM. Xiaomi has dropped
up to Rs 5,000 here, thereby selling for
effectively Rs 22,999.
If you were eyeing the Armored
variant, you can now get it for no extra
cost. The Armored variant is selling for
Rs 22,999 on the top-end variant with
256GB storage.