1 . Today’s world is not an easy adjustment for young adults. Key skill set for success is persistence (毅力), a characteristic that researchers say is heavily influenced by fathers. Researchers from Brigham Young University discovered that fathers are in a unique position to help their adolescent children learn persistence.

BYU professors Laura Padilla-Walker and Randal Day arrived at these findings after following 325 American families over several years. And over time, the persistence gained through fathers led to higher achievement in school.

“There are relatively few studies that stress the unique role of fathers,” Padilla-Walker said. “This research also helps to prove that characteristics such as persistence-which can be taught-are key to a child’s life success.”

Researchers determined that dads need to practice an “authoritative” parenting style. Authoritative parenting is not authoritarian:rigid，demanding or controlling. Rather, an authoritative parenting style includes some of the following characteristics:children feel warmth and love from their father; responsibility and the reasons behind rules are stressed children are given an appropriate level of autonomy (自主权).

In the study, about 52 percent of the dads exhibited above-average levels of authoritative parenting. A key finding is that over time, children raised by an authoritative father were significantly more likely to develop persistence, which leads to better outcomes in school.

This particular study examined 11 to 14-year-olds living in two-parent homes. Yet the researchers suggest that single parents still may play a role in teaching the benefits of persistence, which is an avenue of future research.

5 . Teens interested in losing weight, for instance, got advertisements for unhealthy tips on how to become anorexic (厌食者). Such advertisements targeted these kids in hopes of persuading them to try things that were either dangerous or illegal at their age.

Advertisements are just one example of persuasion — trying to change another’s mind. Advertisements may try to convince us to buy something or do something new and different. Marketing is a field of persuasion designed to sell things, notes Jacob Teeny. Persuasion can be used to sell things. At its worst, it can be used to control people. Clearly, persuasion can be used for good and bad.

People open to new experiences tend to be more easily persuaded, Teeny says. But open-minded people can resist some persuasive arguments — such as the idea that eating junk food is cool. And closed-minded people can sometimes be persuaded. “If you haven’t really thought about the arguments” ahead of time, Teeny says, you’re going to be “much more persuadable.”

7 . Mankind’s attempts at achieving physical beauty is nothing new (the use of beauty products dates back to ancient Egypt and Rome) but the methods we use to achieve that “perfect look” have certainly evolved. Americans spend billions of dollars each year on a variety of beauty products. Some people will stop at nothing to maintain a youthful appearance. Just how far would you go to achieve that youthful glow?

For brave individuals with common aches and muscle pains, Ada Barak’s northern Israel spa (休闲健身中心) offers a slippery solution. In this $70 procedure, dozens of non-poisonous snakes are laid over the body, causing a variety of sensations. Small snakes, such as the milk snake, brush lightly over the skin; larger ones, such as corn and king snakes, provide deeper pressure to alleviate painful muscles.

Temperature treatment method dates back hundreds of years，and Europeans have long applied the use of “cold saunas” to restore the body and reduce chronic pain. The first spa in North America to offer “cryotherapy” was opened in 2010 by Sparkling Hill Resort in British Colombia, Canada. For $45, clients can participate in an icy 3-minute introductory session in which they expose themselves (under close supervision (监管)) to a-110℃ (-166°F) temperature room. Frozen stiff or re-energized? You’ll have to see for yourself.

When a pumice stone (浮石) isn’t enough, some people turn to fish to soften their heels. “Fish pedicures” are popular in Europe and Asia, and run between $40 and $100. The practice is slowly popping up in American salons — though some states have cited hygienic (清洁) issues and banned the treatment. Prior to a traditional pedicure, clients soak their feet in a pool with over 100 garra rufa fish (from the family Cypriniformes), which eat away dead skin to leave feet soft and refreshed.

9 . It’s thanks to these TV chefs rather than any advertising campaign that Britons are turning away from meat-and-two-veg and ready-made meals and becoming more adventurous in their cooking habits. It is recently reported that the number of those sticking to a traditional diet is slowly declining and around half of Britain’s consumers would like to change or improve their cooking in some way. There has been a rise in the number of students applying for food courses at UK universities and colleges. It seems that TV programmes have helped change what people think about cooking.

According to a new study from market analysts, 1 in 5 Britons say that watching cookery programmes on TV has encouraged them to try different food. Almost one third say they now use a wider variety of ingredients (配料) than they used to, and just under 1 in 4 say they now buy better quality ingredients than before. One in four adults say that TV chefs have made them much more confident about expanding their cookery knowledge and skills, and young people are also getting more interested in cooking. The UK’s obsession (痴迷) with food is reflected through television scheduling. Cookery shows and documentaries about food are broadcast more often than before. With an increasing number of male chefs on TV, it’s no longer “uncool” for boys to like cooking.

10 . Every day we are the targets of advertisers, fundraisers and politicians trying to persuade us to buy something, do something or think a certain way. And they’re good at it. Over the years, they’ve learned a lot about what features to build into a communication. But by concentrating so much on the message itself, they’ve missed a crucial component of the process.

Research done in the last 15 years shows that the best persuasion is achieved through the best pre-suasion—the practice of arranging for people to agree with a message before they even know what’s in it. Pre-suasion works by focusing people’s attention on a selected concept, which in turn encourages them to value it more than related ones.

Long before scientists started studying the process of pre-suasion, a few notable communicators already had an intuitive understanding of it.

For example, in 1588, thousands of British troops, who were gathered against a sea invasion by Spain at Tilbury in the UK, were deeply concerned that their leader Queen Elizabeth I would not be up to the rigors (严酷) of battle. In addressing the men, she removed her fears pre-suasively first acknowledging their concern by admitting a weakness, which established her honesty, and then following it with a strength that removed this perceived weakness “I know,” she stated firmly, “I have the body of a weak woman. But I have the heart of a king, and a king of England, too,” It’s reported that this statement was welcomed with long and loud cheers.

The same pre-suasive, honesty-establishing tactic was employed in the late 1950s by the advertising firm Doyle Dane Bernbach to introduce the oddly shaped Volkswagen Beetle to a US market dominated by big, powerful, boat-like vehicles. The “We’re ugly but...” campaign tactically admitted to limitations in appearance before trumpeting the auto’s strengths such as economy, reliability and simplicity. Credited with cracking open the US market for small cars, the ad campaign has been rated among the greatest of all time.

With considerable success, practitioner s(从业者) of social influence have always featured persuasive prods—enthusiastic appreciation, emotional feelings, last-chance opportunities—in their appeals. Perhaps because of that success, they’ve mostly missed an accompanying truth. For maximum impact, it’s not only what you do; it’s also what you do just before you do what you do.