https://prn.fm/gary-null-show-08-03-21/
Gary's notes
https://prn.fm/gary-null-show-notes-08-03-21/
When stressed, people are quicker to jump to the worst conclusion
University College London, July 29, 2021
When under stress, people reach undesirable conclusions based on weaker evidence than when they are relaxed, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.
The findings, published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, show that stress can make people more likely to conclude the worst scenario is true.
Senior author Professor Tali Sharot (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences and Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research) said: “Many of the most significant choices you will make, from financial decisions to medical and professional ones, will happen while you feel stressed. Often these decisions require you to first gather information and weigh the evidence. For example, you may consult multiple physicians before deciding on a best course of medical treatment. We wanted to find out: does feeling stressed change how you process and use the information you gather?
“Our research suggests that under stress, people weight each piece of evidence that supports undesirable conclusions more than when they are relaxed. In contrast, how they weigh evidence that supports desirable conclusions is not affected by stress. As a result, people are more likely to conclude the worst is true when they are stressed.”
For the study, 91 volunteers played a categorisation game, in which they could gather as much evidence as they wanted to decide whether they were in a desirable environment (which was associated with rewards) or an undesirable environment (which was associated with losses). They were incentivised for accuracy. Prior to playing the game, 40 of the volunteers were told that they had to give a surprise public speech, which would be judged by a panel of experts. This caused them to feel stressed and anxious.
The researchers found that under stress, the volunteers needed weaker evidence to reach the conclusion that they were in the undesirable environment. By contrast, stress did not change the strength of the evidence needed to reach the conclusion that they were in the desirable environment.
Lead author, PhD student Laura Globig (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences and Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research) said that “we usually think of stressful situations as a hindrance to our decision-making process. But the pattern of learning we have uncovered may counterintuitively be adaptive, because negative beliefs may drive people to be extra cautious when in threatening environments.”
A New State of Segregation: Vaccine Cards Are Just the Beginning
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president The Rutherford Institute. His books Battlefield America: The War on the American People and A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State are available at www.amazon.com. He can be contacted at [email protected]. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
By John W. Whitehead
“The things we were worried would happen are happening.”—Angus Johnston, professor at the City University of New York
Imagine it: a national classification system that not only categorizes you according to your health status but also allows the government to sort you in a hundred other ways: by gender, orientation, wealth, medical condition, religious beliefs, political viewpoint, legal status, etc.
This is the slippery slope upon which we are embarking, one that begins with vaccine passports and ends with a national system of segregation.
It has already begun.
With every passing day, more and more private businesses and government agencies on both the state and federal level are requiring proof of a COVID-19 vaccination in order for individuals to work, travel, shop, attend school, and generally participate in the life of the country.
No matter what one’s views may be regarding the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is an unnerving proposition for a country that claims to prize the rights of the individual and whose Bill of Rights was written in such a way as to favor the rights of the minority.
By allowing government agents to establish a litmus test for individuals to be able to engage in commerce, movement and any other right that corresponds to life in a supposedly free society, it lays the groundwork for a “show me your papers” society in which you are required to identify yourself at any time to any government worker who demands it for any reason.
https://activistpost.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3ac8bebe085f73ea3503bbda3&id=1c461720f8&e=66db3d676b
