Ideally, if the mind is free of stress, of whatever kind, it works better. You need a little anxiety to work, but if the level increases your judgement becomes wrong. Your feelings impair your functionality.
On Fri 8 Feb, 2019, 7:33 AM archytas <[email protected] wrote: > I've long thought our measures of intelligence are dire. This is from > Rutger Bregman's book 'Utopia for Realists'. You can get the book free > here > http://www.basinkomstpartiet.org/uploads/5/3/4/7/53471687/utopia-for-realists-by-rutger-bregman.pdf > > It all started a few years ago with a series of experiments conducted at a > typical American mall. Shoppers were stopped to ask > what they would do if they had to pay to get their car fixed. Some > were presented with a $150 repair job, others with one costing > $1,500. Would they pay it all in one go, get a loan, work overtime, > or put off the repairs? While the mall-goers were mulling it over, > they were subjected to a series of cognitive tests. In the case of the > less expensive repairs, people with a low income scored about the > same as those with a high income. But faced with a $1,500 repair > job, poor people scored considerably lower. The mere thought of > a major financial setback impaired their cognitive ability. > Shafir and his fellow researchers corrected for all possible variables in > the mall survey, but there was one factor they couldn’t > resolve: The rich folks and the poor folks questioned weren’t the > same people. Ideally, they’d be able to repeat the survey with subjects > who were poor at one moment and rich the next. > Shafir found what he was looking for some 8,000 miles away > in the districts of Vilupuram and Tiruvannamalai in rural India. > The conditions were perfect; as it happened, the area’s sugarcane > farmers collect 60% of their annual income all at once right after > the harvest. This means they are flush one part of the year and > poor the other. So how did they do in the experiment? At the time > when they were comparatively poor, they scored substantially > worse on the cognitive tests, not because they had become dumber > people somehow – they were still the same Indian sugarcane > farmers, after all – but purely and simply because their mental > bandwidth was compromised. > > Interesting. > > -- > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > ""Minds Eye"" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
