In a series of six related experiments, researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania found that an association with alcohol caused observers to “expect cognitive impairment” in a job seeker.“Merely holding an alcoholic beverage may reduce the perceived intelligence of the person,” Scott Rick and Maurice Schweitzer wrote.Their study was presented to the Academy of Management, an annual meeting of business and management researchers.In one of their experiments, the researchers asked 610 middle managers at US companies to evaluate a video recording of a dramatised interview over dinner between a pair of actors playing a manager and a prospective hire.The script for the questions and answers was the same in all cases. In some of the mock interviews, the manager ordered “Coke” or “the house Merlot.” The job seeker also ordered either the soft drink or the wine. Regardless of what the manager ordered, job seekers were seen as less worthy of being hired and less “intelligent, scholarly and intellectual” when they ordered the Merlot.Job seekers who ordered wine after the manager ordered a Coke were “especially punished” with low ratings for perceived intelligence, the study said. –– Reuters.
SHORT ARM OF THE LAW: France has ended restrictions barring people under 1,6 metres from joining the police force. The country of Napoleon imposed minimum height requirements for police centuries ago, raising them over the decades as the average size of Frenchmen rose, but the rules have come to be seen as discriminatory. “Entry into all active categories of the national police is no longer reserved for candidates whose height exceeds 1,60 metres,” the French Labour ministry said in a statement. “From now on the conditions of entry will be linked exclusively to the ability to carry out the relevant duties.”According to the national statistics office INSEE, the average French man stands 1,75 metres and the average woman 1,63 metres, compared to 1,66 metres and 1,54 metres, respectively, in 1900.French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s height is estimated at around 1,65 meters, roughly the same size as French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Police union Alliance Police Nationale welcomed the move, saying the previous requirements had prevented candidates who were “morally, physically and intellectually” capable of working as police. France has height requirements for joining the military which remain in place. –– Reuters.
NO LAUGHING MATTER: Being in court is no laughing matter as far as one US judge is concerned. A North Carolina man who was waiting for his case to be heard Friday drew the ire of Judge Toni King after starting to laugh in a Cumberland County courtroom. Authorities said King asked 47-year-old Johnny Montgomery why he was laughing, but the man refused to say.King ordered Montgomery to jail on a misdemeanor charge. As deputies were preparing to take Montgomery to jail, they searched him and found more than three grammes of crack cocaine.Montgomery was charged with felony drug possession. Authorities said he does not yet have a court date nor an attorney. –– AP.
