“It wasn’t the environment itself that was stressful or distracting — it was the lack of control.” People work better when they have some control. Workers were observed to be more productive and feel more satisfied with their jobs when their employers gave them the freedom to decorate their workspaces as they wished. However, when managers shifted their decorations slightly, they felt their freedom was taken away and performed significantly worse and felt dissatisfied with their jobs. Read full article here
Societal Issues
AI Predicts Crime A Week In Advance With 90 Per Cent Accuracy
An artificial intelligence model built by Ishanu Chattopadhyay and his colleagues analysed crime data in Chicago from 2014 to 2016 and managed to predict future levels of crime down to the nearest 300 metres, a week before they actually happened. While extremely useful, this artificial intelligence has been shown to expose racial prejudice in law enforcement. Hopefully, as the study’s data and methodology have been made available for others to evaluate, these prejudices can be avoided in the next iteration. Read full article here