Philosophy
Been thinking about Isen and Levin's psychology experiments on kindness from the early 70's. In one experiment, a confederate handed out cookies to random students in a university library. Some time later, another confederate asked students in the library -- both those who received cookies and those who didn't -- whether they would be willing to give up twenty minutes to help with a psychology experiment. In the second experiment, a phone booth* was randomly stocked with a dime in the coin return. After a caller had completed a call, a confederate walking by the phone booth "accidentally" dropped a manila folder full of papers. In both cases, a statistically significant additional number of people agreed to help the psychology student and the person picking up the papers after having experienced good luck. When someone has done something nice for us or when the universe has given us a good turn, we are more likely to be thoughtful and kind.
If our behavior is so influenced by our surroundings, it raises a couple of questions. The obvious one which we've played with before is how much praise or condemnation do people deserve for being or not being thoughtful if we are not completely free agents? But knowing the effects of social psychology, should we set up society in a way that makes the best use of it? Of course, people who get used to having things done for them acquire a sense of entitlement and expect it, so the acts must continue to be thought of as random kindness. How could we harness this to make the world a better place?
*For younger Playground readers, a phone booth was a small closet-sized enclosure made of glass that contained a large telephone into which one would insert coins in order to make a call.
- Do We Control The Weapons Or Do The Weapons Control Us?
Thinking about one place where cognitive work in psychology overlaps with social psychology, the weapons effect. In the late 60s, psychologists Berkowitz and LePage showed that just seeing a weapon causes people to act more aggressively. Contemporary...
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Every college, university, and research hospital has what is called an institutional review board to oversee every proposed experiment involving human subjects, screening them for ethical problems or concerns. This all started with the uproar over Stanley...
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You see a speed trap set up for the folks in the other lane. Do you flash your lights and alert them? If so, was it a good act? You get nothing from it. It was a purely other-directed action. The desire was to keep those folks on the other side from getting...
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Philosophy
Coins, Cookies, and Kindness
Been thinking about Isen and Levin's psychology experiments on kindness from the early 70's. In one experiment, a confederate handed out cookies to random students in a university library. Some time later, another confederate asked students in the library -- both those who received cookies and those who didn't -- whether they would be willing to give up twenty minutes to help with a psychology experiment. In the second experiment, a phone booth* was randomly stocked with a dime in the coin return. After a caller had completed a call, a confederate walking by the phone booth "accidentally" dropped a manila folder full of papers. In both cases, a statistically significant additional number of people agreed to help the psychology student and the person picking up the papers after having experienced good luck. When someone has done something nice for us or when the universe has given us a good turn, we are more likely to be thoughtful and kind.
If our behavior is so influenced by our surroundings, it raises a couple of questions. The obvious one which we've played with before is how much praise or condemnation do people deserve for being or not being thoughtful if we are not completely free agents? But knowing the effects of social psychology, should we set up society in a way that makes the best use of it? Of course, people who get used to having things done for them acquire a sense of entitlement and expect it, so the acts must continue to be thought of as random kindness. How could we harness this to make the world a better place?
*For younger Playground readers, a phone booth was a small closet-sized enclosure made of glass that contained a large telephone into which one would insert coins in order to make a call.
- Do We Control The Weapons Or Do The Weapons Control Us?
Thinking about one place where cognitive work in psychology overlaps with social psychology, the weapons effect. In the late 60s, psychologists Berkowitz and LePage showed that just seeing a weapon causes people to act more aggressively. Contemporary...
- Coerced Sample Pools
Every college, university, and research hospital has what is called an institutional review board to oversee every proposed experiment involving human subjects, screening them for ethical problems or concerns. This all started with the uproar over Stanley...
- Agap? And Our Mett? Obligation
Guest post from C.Ewing: Linkage and here. Recently, I had a discussion with TR about the linear assumption people seem to have. That is, if one appears to be acting in a kind way (performing a kind action) then we tend to assume that this relates back...
- Is Being Kind Always Morally Good?
You see a speed trap set up for the folks in the other lane. Do you flash your lights and alert them? If so, was it a good act? You get nothing from it. It was a purely other-directed action. The desire was to keep those folks on the other side from getting...
- An Essay On "landline' Phones
I doubt that the cellular phone will eliminate the landline phones. The technology is still there and needed. "Listening In on a Pay Phone in Queens" by Manny Fernandez February 12th, 2010 The New York Times Benjamin Patir called his son because he...