Back in the '70s Steven Kerr wrote a wonderful article called "On The Folly of Rewarding A While Hoping For B" which very clearly showed how we often don't pay attention to the factors that are truly governing our behavior (at least from a behavioral perspective).
When I saw a recent episode of The Daily Show on Comedy Central I couldn't help but think of Kerr's article. The piece was about how non-specific the presidential candidates are talking in their speeches. The candidate's "Generic-Off". Might make for a good class discussion when you get to the Learning chapter. I haven't gotten around to making an episode out of this yet, but you can find the videos on my site. I decided to include the video of John McCain attempting to answer the "birth control vs. viagra" question too. I don't think during the long pause he takes to answer the question that he is actually thinking about the question. I think he's thinking about how NOT to answer the question. Another example of how we don't reward politicians for specific answers (in fact, we punish them). I'm curious what you think of all this. Michael -- Michael Britt, Ph.D. http://www.thepsychfiles.com/blog [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
