Quantum Psychology .. ok maybe not but anyway
"An article published in the latest issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science finds that we are tied to each other-- what other people do and how they express their feelings is a contagious, strong influence. Stirring in the background of our minds are the influences of other people that affect us without our knowledge or recognition. For example when researchers showed individuals a picture of a library and instructed them to go there after the experiment, participants began to speak more softly, without being aware of why. Similarly, when primed to be rude, individuals interrupted a speaker, while those primed to be polite did not.
The article argues that we should not assume we are aware of most of the important influences on our behavior and judgments, and to accept that there are influences we do not know about. Only then would one have a chance at counteracting those influences and regaining control. At the same time, however, we can be reassured by the knowledge that these automatic influences over us are typically benign, and help keep us in touch with our present circumstances while our conscious mind is time-traveling into the past (memory) or the future (planning)."
1 Comments:
When I was in grad school, Bargh was looking to move, and gave a job talk at my school (he didn't end up there). His talk was about all of this automaticity stuff ("The unbearable automaticity of being" was the title, because apparently he really likes using that). And I think every single question he received afterwards went something like this:
"But when are you going to run a real experiment so that you can figure out why this sort of thing occurs?"
It might be somewhat unfair to say that Bargh doesn't do real experiments, but it is certainly not unfair to say that he has no idea what's happening when he gets his priming effects. At least, he has no empirically tested idea. And there are all sorts of answers that are more mundane than his usual "social schemas" explanation (e.g., simple changes in arousal due to aspects of the stimuli other than the priming categories).
Fortunately, several years later, he seems to realize that his days of simply producing "sexy" priming effects and getting in the news are over, and it's time to do some real science. But I wonder what he'll find when he does. (And who the hell cites Lakoff and Johnson when talking about complex conceptual structures?)
Sat Apr 15, 06:00:44 PM CDT
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home