Notes on 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman

He writes, placing a mirror in front of people when they are presented with different food options results in remarkable 32 per cent reduction in their consumption of unhealthy food. Because seeing their own reflection makes them more aware of their body and more likely to eat food that is good for their body.

I'm wondering if all those mirrors in small buffets or cafes, where you sit at the counter facing a mirror, would have a negative effect on that probable second sandwich people would eat under mirror-less circumstances.

In the section about personality, Wiseman mentions how people are right-brained or left brained. This is something I always couldn't decide about myself. Because I can describe myself as a creative person with visual abilities such as drawing, painting, visual memory (which would define 'right-brained'), I'm also quite good at foreign languages and would bet on logic rather than emotions in most cases ('left-brained' qualities). Well now I know which I am. "Interlock the fingers of your hands and place one thumb on top of the other. People who place their right thumb on top of their left thumb tend to be left-brain dominant.." and vise versa. So, I'm right-brain dominant.

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with which hand one holds the cards when playing a card game (When everybody holds their cards with their left hands I hold them with my right) or which hand one holds the toothbrush..

In the same section, Wiseman states a theory of University of California psychologist Frank Sulloway:

"According to Sulloway's theory, because younger children haven't developed their older siblings' abilities and skills, they explore novel ways to get their parents' love and attention, and this, in turn, causes them to develop into more open, creative, unconventional, adventurous and rebellious people."

I'm a single child. If it's true for single children too, then it describes a lot of my independent adventurousness and never ending rebellion.

Another interesting research result mentioned in the book is in the creativity section:

"In a study conducted by psychologist Jens Forster from the International University Bremen, Germany, participants were asked to jot down a few sentences about the behaviour, lifestyle and appearance of a typical punk (chosen because punks were, as the researchers put it, 'anarchic and radical'), while others did exactly the same for a typical engineer ('conservative and logical'). Everyone was then given a standard test of creativity. The results revealed that those who had spent just a few seconds thinking about the punk were significantly more creative than those who had put time into thinking about the typical engineer."

You can buy the book here.