As social scientists have discovered, interrogative self-talk is often more valuable than the declarative kind.

In subsequent research, they and other scholars found that people most disposed to creative breakthroughs in art, science, or any endeavor tend to be problem finders. These people sort through vast amounts of information and inputs, often from multiple disciplines; experiment with a variety of different approaches; are willing to switch directions in the course of a project; and often take longer than their counterparts to complete their work.

So in an ingenious field study, two Georgetown University economists, James Habyarimana and William Jack, devised a method to change the behavior of Kenya’s daredevil drivers.

In 2008, he [Grant] carried out a fascinating study of a call center at a major U.S. university…

But the people in the purpose group kicked into overdrive. They more than doubled “the number of weekly pledges that they earned and the amount of weekly donation money that they raised.

But the successful seller must feel some commitment that his product offers mankind as much altruistic benefit as it yields the seller in money.