I caught an article on Science Daily about how people enjoy a movie more when they see it with other people. Now this sounds pretty “doh!” to me, but then science often proves the known in order to move on and be sure they understand the underlying reasons for things. However, in reading the article, I couldn’t help but think that maybe this behavior might be a bit more prevalent that just with movies. For example the authors said:
the researchers videotaped participants and found that synchrony of evaluations can be traced to glances at the other person during the film and adoption of the observed expressions.
That sounds like the sort of behavior that you observe in crowds of any type — whether that behavior is positive or negative. For example, people in a protest march will act out not with their usual behavior but following the visual and auditory behaviors of the rest of the marchers. Often, not believing that they did what they did afterward. It’s only a step beyond their normal behavior and; no, they wouldn’t have done it IF they’d been on their own. In a crowd, we feel anonymous and able to do things that we wouldn’t ordinarily do and it’s that gaining cues from others who are not following their own inner rules of behavior that leads to the violence often seen in crowd situations.
On the other hand, I’m going to put a positive spin on this, maybe this same behavior can model “good” behavior also. During the Christmas season, nothing really changes but people feel that they aught to behave “better” because of the season. It takes very little for the first person to wish another, “Happy Holidays”. Then they wish someone else well, and the behavior spreads. Watch the Salvation Army cauldrons, often no one gives a donation, then one person does and many others who observed the dropping of the coins also give. So, this crowd watching for signals to behavior can also be a positive thing — not just causing riots but random acts of kindness.
So, when you’re out in public think about the behavior that you want others about you to model when you act. Maybe your random act of kindness can be to smile at people when they wait on you. Take the time to sincerely wish them a “Happy Holiday” rather than just parroting the words. What you do may be what causes another to pass it on. If we all pass on kindness and good behavior it may not stop wars or end our environmental crisis or even pay your bills. But if we all just try to act a bit nicer to each other in little ways that don’t hurt us or take away from our ordinary rush and business — perhaps, just perhaps, it will make the world a bit of a nicer place to be and all that karma just might add up to make this a better place to live, not just during the holiday season, but every day.
Pollyanna-ish, probably — but, it is based in science, so give it a try.
So, what do you do when faced with writer’s block. Well, I don’t know about you but I clean or attempt to clean the house. It seems that if you can’t do what you should do, you ought to at least try to do something positive. Cleaning is not only a positive activity, it leaves your mind free to think of other things. So, while mulling over plot and characters and essay topics — I decided to clear up my stash.
Greetings to all you fans of “A Curious Statistical Anomaly”. In addition to the many other bits of fluff that have caught Gayle’s eye, I was lucky enough to attract her attention twenty years ago and convince her that marrying me would be a good idea. I generally lurk behind the scenes, but Gayle has been pointedly hinting that perhaps I should write a few entries myself. As a guy, I can be pretty oblivious to such subtlety, but I guess there are limits that even I have to respect. It’s not that I don’t like posting, it’s just that once I do, it’s the first step towards a tradition. And as a confirmed procrastinator, I live by the motto: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can put off until next week”. The Canadian Lynx to the left is my avatar. I’ll be using him so that there will be no confusion as to when I write a post and when she does. Although, our styles are sufficiently different that I wouldn’t think telling us apart wouldn’t be that difficult.
Well, we were hoping to get some more leaves raked up before the snow came down but the snow beat us to it. At least we got most of the driveway cleared but the garden and orchard is now a lightly snow-covered carpet of leaves. I’m now telling myself that leaves make great mulch and by spring it will all be a moot point — except that was my mantra last winter and in the spring, when things dried out, we had to clear up the leaves before planting and doing all the yard work. You’d think I’d learn but somehow, there never does seem to be enough hours in the day or days in the week. We have weekends to do all the errands that couldn’t be done during the week and while I work at home that usually means I get the wash, dishes, and some house chores done while waiting on connections or downloads, but I don’t get out in the yard much — not even when it wasn’t too hot or too cold.
Today we went out and did our usual weekend shopping. You know running all the errands that you can’t or didn’t get to during the week. Yesterday, we spent some time getting housework done and since the air pressure is changing I was pretty migraine-y so we stayed close to home. Since the weekend only has two days it was shop today or else try to squeeze it into all the weekday to-do lists and that just wasn’t happening.
