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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
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We’ve all had that moment: you wanna punch some jerk right in the face. So, what stops us? Well, simply put, self-control.
But it turns out each of us has a limited quantity of self-control. Past studies have shown, for example, that stopping yourself from taking a cookie for about an hour is likely to increase your aggression later that day.
And there are tricks to increase our stash of control. A new study shows you can practice it, as one would practice any new skill,
For two weeks researchers had subjects use their non-dominant hand for daily tasks: navigating a computer mouse, drinking coffee, etcetera. The tasks require constant self-control, because they were restraining their natural inclinations.
And the scientists found that for those who practiced their self-control skills also controlled their aggression better than others who had not participated in the exercise. The study is in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science.
So we can increase our capacity for self-control. And the way we do that doesn’t have to be as drastic as using your non-dominant hand. The researchers say even committing to keeping your posture straight can also keep you from punching out that jerk.
—Christie Nicholson
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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6 Comments
Add CommentI'm sorry, but it really upsets me to use my other hand on tasks normally done with my 'natural' hand. This technique then is only for people who don't mind completely screwing their heads on backwards for any period of time; most people I believe would dump the exercise in minutes; did they pay them? Did they know what they were getting into? How many applied but refused? While the idea is interesting, I do not think it was the right parameters for the premise.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy are you sorry? You are supposed to concentrate on something you're not used to. It is called self control.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou should be sorry for being a ninny.
Isn't it odd to equate self-control with aggression?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think a better study would be seeing if that back-asswards regimen helps with quitting smoking or other addiction.
Seems to me that it might.
The problem with this approach is that it also slows down performance, which could be a serious problem at work. Another approach which has been shown to work is to meditate for 20 minutes a day, focusing on only one simple thing such as your breathing. This also requires self-control since most people get bored doing such a simple thing fairly quickly. Perhaps doing the hand-switching approach also works if it is only done for a short period each day as well. It would be interesting to see this tested.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHold on there Mr. Pretzell.... Are you kidding? I'm not saying you're off subject when you post; "I had realized how absurd institutional, conscious testing for black holes in broad public daylight in our human context is and have respect for what string theory is foreseing. Like others I had inspected the safety arguments, right at the spot and elsewhere and was very irritated about this systemic mistake, had to apologize where I had lost self-control communicating this issue."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut I'm pretty sure of how you came up with the name "Pretzell" and I do agree that self control is Way Better than enforced control from Governments and Institutions. Peace, David Kempton AKA Rev.Corvette
Thank you Alf Pretzell, ¿for the clarification? ( I do admit that if all was left up to "self control" it would not take very long for society in general to sink into "black [or any other color] slime" to a major extent, because the systemic torque as well as Greed there IS immense.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was referring to the benefits of self control as opposed to the frustrating and sometimes fatal effects of the enforcement of government and institutional control.