Fantastic interview on Radio Boston of David Disteno at
Northeastern University – who coincidentally just published a new book. His research is on what makes us jealous and
what we do about it. The interview
covers a lot of his work, so I will pick out one piece and give you the links to the
book and the podcast if you want more.
One study involves getting unsuspecting volunteers to
interact with very attractive confederates who are posing as other
volunteers. After working together for a
few minutes answering trivia questions a third person comes in. The attractive volunteer chooses to work with
this “intruder” on the next part of the activity. Later, the spurned
volunteer has to decide how much hot pepper to put in a sauce for a “blind taste
test” for the other volunteer - the supposed purpose of the study. The way the study is put together is really
devious. The results are just what you
would think. Both male and female
volunteers got back at their partner by putting a lot of extra hot pepper in the
sauce. I am probably not doing justice to the study in this short post. I really
recommend reading or listening to the whole thing.
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