Corn subsidies in myriad forms are one of the country's most infuriating wastes of money.
What else is in processed food? Petroleum.
Times have changed--get with it, Mr. President--and it's much harder to hate who you know. And being organized helps.
Why do we stigmatize shyness? We "watchful, slow-to-warm-up types" don't need Zoloft. A lot of this really explains some of RM's cluelessness:
Relaxed and exploratory, the rovers have fun, make friends and will take risks, both rewarding and dangerous ones, as they grow. According to Daniel Nettle, a Newcastle University evolutionary psychologist, extroverts are more likely than introverts to be hospitalized as a result of an injury, have affairs (men) and change relationships (women). One study of bus drivers even found that accidents are more likely to occur when extroverts are at the wheel.Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me comes to the Times.
In contrast, sitter children are careful and astute, and tend to learn by observing instead of by acting. They notice scary things more than other children do, but they also notice more things in general. Studies dating all the way back to the 1960’s by the psychologists Jerome Kagan and Ellen Siegelman found that cautious, solitary children playing matching games spent more time considering all the alternatives than impulsive children did, actually using more eye movements to make decisions. Recent studies by a group of scientists at Stony Brook University and at Chinese universities using functional M.R.I. technology echoed this research, finding that adults with sitter-like temperaments looked longer at pairs of photos with subtle differences and showed more activity in brain regions that make associations between the photos and other stored information in the brain...
Sitters’ temperaments also confer more subtle advantages. Anxiety, it seems, can serve an important social purpose; for example, it plays a key role in the development of some children’s consciences. When caregivers rebuke them for acting up, they become anxious, and since anxiety is unpleasant, they tend to develop pro-social behaviors. Shy children are often easier to socialize and more conscientious, according to the developmental psychologist Grazyna Kochanska. By 6 they’re less likely than their peers to cheat or break rules, even when they think they can’t be caught, according to one study. By 7 they’re more likely to be described by their parents as having high levels of moral traits such as empathy.
Posts
2 comments:
Why do we stigmatize shyness? I think, to a certain extent, extroverts tend to win, because they're the ones thrust into the spotlight even if they're less talented. When I worked in radio, I really came to hate introverted celebrities. They are horrible interviews. And the bigger a celebrity gets the less they do to cover up their introversion. The extroverted celebrities were often less talented but much easier to work with. This goes for behind the scenes as well. For example, though most writers are introverted, I know that it will make people uncomfortable if I don't talk to them because it literally exhausts me to be social IRL. Even so, extroverted writers or introverts who play the game better get much farther than those who don't. And this might be fair. Really, art is an attention game. And you can expect people to pay you with attention if you're not willing to at least act less shy/introverted. Extroverts get on my nerves a bit, but at least they try to connect with everyone. The fact is I know that people don't like as much as they might if I were extroverted. At the same time, as an introvert, I don't think I can expect to have it both ways. If I stay quiet then I won't make that connection, if I speak up, I do. So though I'm proudly introverted, I do make sure to speak up when it counts, to give as good of interviews as possible, and not to complain if my general IRL shyness nets me less fans. Also, I try to do more than most writers do online (a place where I'm not shy or introverted). I find this rash of articles about introverts being stigmatized bizarre. We're introverts, people aren't going to like us as much as extroverts. Deal with it. I also find the whole "Europe respects introverts" argument a bit weird. People leave me alone in the states. But man, I've never had so many strangers try to talk to me everywhere I've gone in Europe. I wonder what they mean when they say Europe doesn't stigmatize their introverts. Prove it.
But back to the old RM. He was an extrovert without boundaries. Extroverts tend not to understand introverts and they're often the ones in power which makes it really hard for us introverts. In general, it's just a bad idea for introverts and extroverts to be roommates. They'll just get on each other's nerves. Most people are somewhere in between though. You got a really bad egg there.
Post a Comment