Study copyright Dow-Jones???
Gee, Looks like a study to prove more "mood alterations" are necessary.
Or, could this be the tip of the revolution to come???
When people are stressed, they have no time for /anything/, especially
manners (unless it will help them achieve their objectives). The
business overlords wanting more production for more profit so people are
stressed due to too demanding a work load; people working longer hours
for the same earnings; people stressed trying to get from 1 p-t job to
another one; people who have lost hope of getting work (these would be
the /slow/ walkers but angry enough to respond to aggressors).
Generally, I would assume one is less stressed when one has the living
expenses covered. Then we begin to enter the stage where we can look
around us, to meet the eyes of those spirits that may only be yearning
for contact as a bright note in the day. There are a lot of lonely,
angry spirits out there that need outlets and those outlets are not
jobs, nor are they sports (basically adrenalinized anger).
Communities have lost their soul not just their ability to "mask".
Rapaciousness of the Overlords must eventually filter down the "ladder
of success" to disrupt the lives of the pleb's. and I believe we are now
seeing that result in the current levels of stress around us.
Darryl
On 2/15/2011 6:47 AM, Ray Harrell wrote:
In the world of masks, an emotion is not something that happens to you
but something you choose to put on the perceptual energy that is
essentially a chemical response to perception. Emotion doesn't
happen to you, it is the "face" that you put on the energy of
interaction with the world. You choose to be mad, sad, glad or
scared but what is behind it is what rises from the interaction of
your perceptions with your experience. The way of the masks is a part
of our spiritual and diplomatic traditions and discipline, it is also
the way of the theater in the West. The masks are two layers
deep. The first is the mask of the immediate, in theater the mask of
character. Beneath that is the mask of competence or skill. The
inner mask is virtu-osity the mastery of pattern and instantaneous
skilled response. Beneath the two masks is the person who
perceives and judges, puts on an appropriate face [emotion] based upon
information both present and past.
I would say that both "road rage" and "sidewalk rage" are pathologies
based on the confusion of the primal energy with the "skin that covers
it." The "face" , emotional choice for a purpose. Both "rages"
are out of control being ruled by the masks rather than being masters
of themselves. That means that their response is historical rather
than present. A schizoid condition. They needed more freedom and
performing arts as children in order to develop that control and
differentiation. Psycho-therapy confuses the two as it defines
emotion as something that happens to you rather than something you
choose for a purpose. That's what it looks like from where I sit.
REH
*From:*[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Arthur
Cordell
*Sent:* Tuesday, February 15, 2011 9:14 AM
*To:* [email protected]; 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME
DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'
*Subject:* [Futurework] FW: sidewalk rage
Maybe not on topic, but perhaps a sign of the times.
Arthur
===========================
Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703786804576138261177599114.html
You don't need a car to get road rage.
*For many people, few things are more infuriating than slow
walkers---those seemingly inconsiderate people who clog up sidewalks,
grocery aisles and airport hallways while others fume behind them.*
Researchers say the concept of "sidewalk rage" is real. One scientist
has even developed a Pedestrian Aggressiveness Syndrome Scale to map
out how people express their fury. At its most extreme, sidewalk rage
can signal a psychiatric condition known as "intermittent explosive
disorder," researchers say. On Facebook, there's a group called "I
Secretly Want to Punch Slow Walking People in the Back of the Head"
that boasts nearly 15,000 members.
On sidewalks across America, slow-paced foot shufflers, window gawkers
and photo snappers are causing fellow pedestrians to lose their cool.
We ask some New Yorkers what pushes their buttons -- at least the ones
who stopped long enough to talk to us. WSJ's Shirley Wang reports.
Some researchers are even studying the dynamics that trigger such rage
and why some people remain calm in hopes of improving anger-management
treatments and gaining insights into how emotions influence decision
making, attention and self control.
"We're trying to understand what makes people angry, what that
experience is like," says Jerry Deffenbacher, a professor at Colorado
State University who studies anger and road rage. "For those for whom
anger is a personal problem, we're trying to develop and evaluate ways
of helping them."
*Signs of a sidewalk rager include muttering or bumping into others;
uncaringly hogging a walking lane; and acting in a hostile manner by
staring, giving a "mean face" or approaching others too closely, says
Leon James, a psychology professor at the University of Hawaii who
studies pedestrian and driver aggression.*
*For the cool-headed, sidewalk rage may seem incomprehensible. After
all, it seems simple enough to just go around the slow individual. Why
then are some people, even those who greet other obstacles with
equanimity, so infuriated by unhurried fellow pedestrians? *
How one interprets the situation is key, researchers say. Ragers tend
to have a strong sense of how other people should behave. Their code:
Slower people keep to the right. Step aside to take a picture. And the
left side of an escalator should be, of course, kept free for anyone
wanting to walk up.
Pedestrian Aggressiveness Syndrome
A University of Hawaii researcher says it manifests itself in these traits
* Having *denigrating thoughts* about other pedestrians
* Walking by a slower moving pedestrian and *cutting back* too
soon (feels hostile or rude)
* *Feeling competitive* with other pedestrians
* *Acting in a hostile manner* (staring, presenting a mean face,
moving faster or closer than expected)
* *Feeling stress and impatience* when walking in a crowded area
(crosswalk, staircase, mall, store, airport, street, beach,
park, etc.)
* *Walking much faster* than the rest of the people
* *Not yielding* when it's the polite thing to do
* *Walking on the left* of a crowded passageway where most
pedestrians walk on the right
* *Muttering* at other pedestrians
* *Bumping into* others
* *Not apologizing* when expected (after bumping by accident or
coming very close in attempting to pass)
* Making insulting *gestures*
* *Hogging or blocking the passageway*, acting uncaring or unaware
* Expressing pedestrian *rage against a driver* (like insulting or
throwing something)
* Feeling *enraged at other pedestrians* and enjoying thoughts of
violence
*"A lot of us have 'shoulds' in our head," says Dr. Deffenbacher.
Ragers tend to think people should do things their way, and get angry
because the slow walkers are breaking the rules of civility. It's
unclear exactly why some people harbor such beliefs, Dr. Deffenbacher
says. Such ways of thinking are generally learned from family, friends
or the media, he adds.*
Ragers' thoughts tend to be overly negative, over-generalized and
blown out of proportion, leaving them fuming about how they can't
stand the situation, how late they are going to be, and how this
always comes up, Dr. Deffenbacher says. In contrast, someone
blissfully free of sidewalk rage may still be frustrated, but thinks
more accepting thoughts such as, "this is the way life is sometimes"
or, "I wish that slow person wasn't in front of me," he says.
Some ragers say that thinking insulting thoughts about other
pedestrians serves as "mental venting"---and makes them feel better.
Even if it does provide some momentary relief, such thinking rehearses
bad behavior and can make anger a more automatic reaction to these
situations, says Dr. James.
"When you're emotionally upset, you're impaired," says Dr. James.
He should know. He used to be a very aggressive walker as he vied with
swarms of tourists for space on the crowded streets of Honolulu, he
says. He would square his shoulders and walk straight ahead, bumping
into people and thinking it was his right; he was the one walking
properly.
But his wife repeatedly called him an aggressive walker, he says.
Finally, she convinced him. Now he tries to walk around people rather
than into them, he says. And he says he feels guilty when he does
succumb to the urge to barge through.
Psychologists say that the best thing for a rager to do is to calm
down. Anger, after all, is associated with a host of negative health
consequences, including heart problems and high blood pressure.
But calming down isn't always easy. Those at the extreme end of the
rage continuum, sidewalk or otherwise, may have intermittent explosive
disorder, a condition characterized by an inability to inhibit
aggressive impulses that lead to assault or destruction of property,
according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, psychiatry's bible of diagnoses.
If friends or family comment on your anger, or you think you need to
tell someone how to walk---however politely---you may have a problem,
says Dr. James, who devised the Pedestrian Aggressiveness Syndrome
Scale. It outlines 15 bad pedestrian behaviors featured in Dr. James's
research based on questionnaires and interviews. Although the scale
hasn't been statistically verified, he says anyone who engages in one
of these behaviors regularly may give in to the others as well.
Many anger-management treatments haven't been studied thoroughly
enough to show whether they work. One type shown to be effective,
cognitive-behavioral therapy, seeks to alter thoughts and actions by
coming up with alternative ways to view a situation.
All The Rage
The average speed of walkers in Lower Manhattan is 4.27 feet per
second. Other speeds:
1. Tourists walk 3.79 feet per second; 2. Smokers: 4.17 feet per
second; 3. Cellphone users: 4.20 feet per second; 4. Headphone
listeners: 4.64 feet per second; 5. Large pedestrians: 3.74 feet per
second; 6. Men: 4.42 feet per second; 7. Women: 4.10 feet per second;
8. People with bags: 4.27 feet per second;
For instance, instead of thinking about how much of an idiot the
pedestrian is and how he shouldn't be allowed on the sidewalk, imagine
the person is lost or confused, or simply doesn't see you, says Eric
Dahlen, a psychology professor at the University of Southern
Mississippi in Hattiesburg who researches anger, aggression and
traffic psychology.
*Developing strategies to quell the rage may be wise: Sidewalks aren't
getting any less crowded, and pedestrian speeds, research shows, are
slipping as the population ages. *
In addition, most people on a sidewalk are in groups, and they tend to
walk side-by-side or in an outward-opening V-shape, impeding the flow
of foot traffic, according to an article published recently in PLoS
One, a Public Library of Science journal.
*People slow down when distracted by other activities, too. A 2006
study by the City of New York and the NYC Department of City Planning
showed smokers walk 2.3% slower than the average walker's 4.27 feet
per second. Tourists creep along at an 11% more-leisurely rate than
the average walker, while cellphone talkers walk 1.6% slower,
according to the study. Headphone wearers, by contrast, clipped along
at a 9% faster rate than average. *
A series of studies by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
using a virtual-reality simulator found that walkers consistently slow
down when they talk on their phones, and that kids and older adults
are more likely to get hit by cars while on the phone compared with
those who weren't on the phone.
So, how best to navigate around speed-challenged strollers?
Most people tend to look down as they walk. That's a mistake, says
Mehdi Moussaid, a cognitive scientist at the University of Toulouse
who models walkers' behavior on public sidewalks and was an author of
the PLoS One study. Some of his advice: Look up and take a wide-angle
view to catch openings and slip through.
---Sarah Nassauer contributed to this article
*Write to *Shirley S. Wang at [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
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