Tag Archives: self deception

Chocolate For Stress?

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Dark chocolate - good for stress? Yes!

Dark chocolate – good for stress? Yes! Good for you? Maybe not so much.

Maybe. Maybe not!

A recent article by the American Chemical Society (ACS) purports to extol the virtues of dark chocolate as a possible cure for stress. Apparently there is some substance to their study as it is getting plenty of press. Maybe that’s because we Westerners do like chocolate – and having a report that substantiates our appetite for the sweet confection adds to its reasonableness as a snack for us stressed-out folks.

Although it is nice that 1.4 oz of dark chocolate a day can significantly reduce stress over a two week period, it’s also true that “nobody can each just one!”

Let’s face it, some of us like chocolate A LOT – so much so that we might find it difficult to cut back to 1.4 oz per day!

I think it’s a bit early to start patting ourselves on the back for eating what is good for us each time we reach for the bonbons.

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It Wasn’t Me!

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T. gondii bacteria directed the behavior of mice to help the bacteria complete their life cycle. T. gondii is found in as many as 20% of humans.

T. gondii bacteria directed the behavior of mice to help the bacteria complete their life cycle. T. gondii is found in as many as 20% of humans.

A research group from the University of Leeds was able to show that a bacterium, Toxoplasma gondii, found in a large percentage of humans, affects the brains of mice in such a way as to direct the actions and behaviors of the infected rodents.

The researchers were able to show that the bacteria cause the mice to lose their fear of cats and thus make it far more likely they would get eaten, helping the parasitic bacteria to complete their life cycle in their main host.

A Discovery Channel program, The World’s Dirtiest Man, made an interesting statement in this regard (paraphrasing): as many as 90 percent of the cells on our body are actually bacteria, leaving only 10% human.* I was shocked! I had to rewind the old Tivo and catch that again.

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Pattern Problems

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How quickly and accurately we recognize a pattern could mean the difference between death and survival 20,000 years ago.

How quickly and accurately we recognize a pattern could mean the difference between death and survival 20,000 years ago.

Patterns – it’s the stuff of life. We don’t perceive reality – we literally create it with our assumptions – based on our perception of patterns. We assume a pattern as soon as we “guess” that one exists. After that, we tend to “fill in the blanks” rather than test our hypothesis (our “guess”).

To illustrate my point, consider the following pattern:

1, 2, 3…

Can you predict the next number? Of course you can. You assume it is 4. That’s because you perceive a familiar pattern. But, what if it is not 4. What if it is 5 instead? Is the pattern broken? Maybe – unless you can perceive a new pattern, you will not be able to predict the next or the next number.

Prediction is how we survived on the plains 200,000 years ago when we were considered food by many of the then existing fauna. Correct predictions brought about survival. Incorrect predictions often brought about death. Over the course of millions of years of evolution, prediction has become so ingrained in humans as to make it invisible to us.

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Why We Feel Guilt

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The best resolution to guilt is ACTION - some kind of action that mitigates or helps redeem us from our transgression.

The best resolution to guilt is ACTION – some kind of action that mitigates or helps redeem us from our transgression.

I have always felt that guilt, far from being the “bad guy” of the new age, plays a vital role in the regulation of social behavior. That feeling in your gut often serves as the impetus for a stab at redemption.

Psychologists have trouble agreeing on the function of this complex emotion. On one hand, the punitive feeling of guilt may keep you from repeating the same transgressive behavior in the future, which psychologists call “withdrawal motivation.” Conversely, some researchers view the function of guilt in a societal context, in that it keeps people’s behavior in line with the moral standards of their community. This view emphasizes a more positive emotional experience and is associated with “approach motivation.”

In a study appearing in Psychological Science, published by the Association for Psychological Science, New York University psychologist, David M. Amodio, and his colleagues, Patricia G. Devine, and Eddie Harmon-Jones, sought to bring some understanding to this complex issue. The researchers believe that guilt is initially associated with withdrawal motivation, which then transforms into approach-motivated behavior when an opportunity for reparation presents itself. Furthermore, the researchers sought to test these questions about the functions guilt plays in the context of reducing racial prejudice.

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Understanding Your Hemispheres

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The Three Amigos - left hemisphere, right hemisphere, senses - give us our sense of "reality".

The Three Amigos – left hemisphere, right hemisphere, senses – give us our sense of “reality”.

Your brain’s cortex is divided into two hemispheres – right and left. According to Orrin Devinsky, MD, professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery and Director of the NYU Epilepsy Center at NYU Langone Medical Center, the right hemisphere of the brain dominates self recognition, emotional familiarity and ego boundaries. The job of the left hemisphere is to make sense out of sensual input and information from the right hemisphere – it is the story teller.

There is a complicated interaction between right hemisphere, left hemisphere, your senses, and the animal brain within you. Theories abound as to just how that interaction occurs. Recently, Dr. Devinsky conducted a review of many studies of hemispheric interaction in an attempt to better understand this interaction – focusing on right hemisphere lesions and left hemisphere delusions.

“…delusions result from the loss of these [right hemisphere] functions as well as the over activation of the left hemisphere and its language structures, that ‘create a story’, a story which cannot be edited and modified to account for reality. Delusions result from right hemisphere lesions, but it is the left hemisphere that is deluded.” Lesions in the right hemisphere can cause delusions as the left hemisphere goes to work making sense of distorted identity and emotional information it gets from the injured right hemisphere.

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As I’ve Grown Older

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If I'm only 7 years old, why do I look so OLD?

If I’m only 7 years old, why do I look so OLD?

Aging might be desirable after all.

Joan came to me complaining that she’d tried everything she could find to slow the aging process. She felt that she was getting “old.” By old, she meant that her body looked wrinkled and withered – no longer fresh and alive as it did when she was in her twenties. Now she was in her sixties and wanted to look 10-20 years younger.

She had tried wrinkle creams of all sorts and varieties – spending small fortunes in the process and making herself a standard figure in the local health food stores. Joan’s body was healthy and vibrant – she exercised regularly and ate sensibly. For the most part, she had a pretty good outlook about life although three marriages had dented her psyche a little. Now a single woman, she felt concerned about her looks.

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Logic Level Leaps

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"I failed my math test. - THEREFORE - I must be stupid."

“I failed my math test. – THEREFORE – I must be stupid.”

“I failed! I’m so stupid!”

Ever heard that before – in your own head?

It’s a logic level leap.

What? You’ve never heard of logic levels? Well don’t feel bad – lots of people haven’t heard of them. In Neurolinguistics, logic levels are basically a hierarchy of experience.

Rapid Eye Technicians are familiar with NLP logic levels – they are represented in the Circle of Creation Walk. Basically there are 8 logic levels (named and described by Robert Dilts, 1991):

  1. Environment
  2. Behavior
  3. Capabilities
  4. Beliefs
  5. Values
  6. Identity
  7. Mission/Vision
  8. Spirituality

Logic level leaps are errors in cause and effect thinking. We misidentify the cause from the effects we experience. Let’s look at two logic levels, Behavior and Identity. Behavior is the level of action (do) whereas Identity is the level of being (be). Over time, this confusion of logic levels creates a situation in which the person believes they ARE what they DO. Sound familiar?

Many people run with the following logic levels leap:

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People Think They Reap What They Sow In Relationships

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I see myself more clearly in othersPeople gauge how responsive their partners are primarily by how they themselves respond to their partners-not the other way around, according to a series of Yale studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

“We have examined this in different ways,” said Margaret Clark, faculty author and psychology professor. “In studies of marriage we’ve found that what people report they do for their partners is a better predictor of what they think their spouse does for them than are the spouse’s own reports of what was done.”

“Most surprisingly,” she said, “when Edward Lemay, a senior Yale graduate student, brought people into the lab and asked leading questions to make them feel supportive or non-supportive of their partner, the first group reported that their partner is more supportive toward them than did the second group.”

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3 Misconceptions about Memory

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Most people believe their memory is like a camcorder.

Most people believe their memory is like a camcorder.

“People tend to place greater faith in the accuracy, completeness and vividness of their memories than they probably should,” writes Illinois psychology professor Daniel Simons. Here are three misconceptions about memory and the truth about them.

  1. Misconception – Human memory is like a video camera that accurately records information for later evaluation.
    • Truth – “We’ve known since the 1930s that memories can become distorted in systematic ways. For example, University of California professor Elizabeth Loftus and colleagues have managed to introduce entirely false memories that people believe and trust as if they had really happened.”
  2. Misconception – Memories do not change once the experiences are embedded in memory.
    • Truth – “We’ve known since the 1980s that even memory for vivid, very meaningful personal events can change over time. Our memories can change even if we don’t realize they have changed. Cornell University psychology professor Ulric Neisser showed that personal memories for the Challenger space shuttle explosion changed over time”
  3. Misconception – The testimony of a single confident eyewitness is adequate evidence to convict someone of a crime.
    • Truth – “Even confident witnesses are wrong about 30 percent of the time. That means that if a defendant can’t remember something, a jury might assume they are lying. And misremembering one detail can impugn their credibility for other testimony, when it might just reflect the normal fallibility of memory.”

Chabris wrote -

“The fallibility of memory is well established in the scientific literature, but mistaken intuitions about memory persist, The extent of these misbeliefs helps explain why so many people assume that politicians who may simply be remembering things wrong must be deliberately lying.”

Next time you’re called upon to weigh evidence based on human memory (even your own), you may wish to rethink your assumptions and add a bit of skepticism into your evaluations.

Source: Union College psychology professor Chris Chabris and University of Illinois psychology professor Daniel Simons coauthors of “The Invisible Gorilla.”

Study source: “What People Believe About How Memory Works: A Representative Survey of the U.S. Population.” Online or from the U. of I. News Bureau. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

My Biases

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Biases drastically skew the reliability of anecdotal and legal evidence.

Biases drastically skew the reliability of anecdotal and legal evidence.

As a human being, I’m proud to say I have biases. Having biases is what separates me from the machines I live with. Although it is debatable, I tend to believe that biases serve a useful purpose – to some degree. Knowing I have biases helps me communicate, make choices, respond, and live with far less stress.

To believe you are unbiased is to say you are inhuman or a machine. Admitting your biases helps you take charge of them. And in taking charge of your biases you can take charge of your life. Further, in understanding your biases and how they work you become a more useful and stress-free member of your society.

In this article, I have copied liberally from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. As you read the list of cognitive biases along with their variants, I hope you, too, will find some value. Maybe you’ll notice some biases you didn’t know you had. You can’t truly gauge any of the biases you might be operating under since it’s not possible to accurately observe a system of which you’re a part. Still, you may be able to note biases you see in others and by association assign them to yourself – and maybe notice how you might operate the same bias you see in another.

Remember: knowing you have biases helps you take charge of them. Understanding how your biases work helps you understand yourself and others better. This understanding can serve you and your community in a number of ways.

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