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Interesting study where psychologists asked people from the north and from the south to fill out a questionnaire and take it to the end of a long narrow hallway. They would be blocked by someone going and returning with a brief conflict in passing.
The psychologists found that subjects from the North tended to respond to the bump and the insult with amusement. They saw the angry person as laughable and the situation as silly. The Southerners reacted differently. For them, the insult was infuriating, and in the moment it produced pronounced changes to their faces and body language, which were not present in the Northern subjects.
But it didn't just stop there:
In later runs of the experiment, the psychologists tested the men’s cortisol and testosterone levels, hormones associated with stress and aggression. After the insult, Southerners’ levels of cortisol rose nearly 80 percent, while Northerners rose 33 percent.
What's interesting is the participants in the study didn't know the questionnaire was the study. They thought it was something else entirely, yet what they found was consistent between the Northerners and the Southerners. When Democrats laugh and shake our heads at the tirades, we think those Southerners are putting on an act because they cannot be serious. I guess they are.
LOL Original settlers of the South were herders, the study says. So, I wonder, did they get direct descendants of those original settlers? I mean that would keep the study accurate wouldn't it?
My hypothesis is because Southerners don't encounter cursing and aggression in casual encounters as Nortgerners do, so they tend see it as a bigger deal. (The OP left off the fact that the actor cursed the men when he bumped into them.)
I have a friend who moved to NYC from the South, and while she really likes it, she had a hard time adjusting to people saying things like "get the **** out of here" in a normal business conversation.
On the flip side, people moving here quickly learn to be less aggressive to fit in better. My friend from Philly says she had to quickly learn to quit honking her horn and swearing at people for not going as soon as a light turns green.
When you rarely to never encounter a stranger bumping you and calling you an ******* (like the actor in the scenario did), then you are much more likely to see that as an act of aggression.
08-02-2015, 01:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brentwoodgirl
My hypothesis is because Southerners don't encounter cursing and aggression in casual encounters as Nortgerners do, so they tend see it as a bigger deal. (The OP left off the fact that the actor cursed the men when he bumped into them.)
I have a friend who moved to NYC from the South, and while she really likes it, she had a hard time adjusting to people saying things like "get the **** out of here" in a normal business conversation.
On the flip side, people moving here quickly learn to be less aggressive to fit in better. My friend from Philly says she had to quickly learn to quit honking her horn and swearing at people for not going as soon as a light turns green.
When you rarely to never encounter a stranger bumping you and calling you an ******* (like the actor in the scenario did), then you are much more likely to see that as an act of aggression.
I suspect there's something to this.
IME, having lived in both northern and southern states, people in northern states are direct with each other so this sort of thing is not all that uncommon. In the south, they'll be nice to your face then let the hate unleash once you're out of site and they're back in the company of people they know won't challenge them.
When you rarely to never encounter a stranger bumping you and calling you an ******* (like the actor in the scenario did), then you are much more likely to see that as an act of aggression.
That was the point. The actor did it to get a reaction. The Northerners just chuckled and had little to no physical reaction. Southerners on the other had had a dramatic reaction.
IME, having lived in both northern and southern states, people in northern states are direct with each other so this sort of thing is not all that uncommon. In the south, they'll be nice to your face then let the hate unleash once you're out of site and they're back in the company of people they know won't challenge them.
If you are around hateful people, you should choose better friends. But yes, Southerners tend to be less direct.
My neighbors are Westerners who moved here from CA last year, and they said they are thrilled to live in a place where children are raised so well. They said at the first sleepover one of their middle school sons had here, the kids got up the next morning, cleaned the playroom and asked where the vacuum was so they could get all the popcorn crumbs up. They said they looked at each other and asked if they had moved to the moon instead of across the country.
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