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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

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WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE…..?

The headline reads: “Threat of punishment can deter bad behaviour”......well, who’d a thunk it!?!

I’m not kidding, but I don’t know why taxpayers put up with this kind of nonsense….. I DO wish that U.S. public schools would act on this research, not to speak of SDA schools, which seem infested with people who believe in “redemptive discipline”, AKA no discipline to speak of. It keeps the parents off your back, don’t you know? And if you’re willing to put up with bad behavior on the part of some students, your life at school may be a bit easier in the short run, as well. The long run? In the long run, we’re all dead….. Of course I may be overly cynical, but how does it look to you?
But enough of that, what about the research?

“Our societies have clear definitions of what is appropriate,” said Ernst Fehr, an economist at Zurich University and one of the authors. He points to norms such as fairness, cooperation and honesty.

“Most people are willing to comply with these norms in the absence of punishment,” he told swissinfo. “But a significant minority will only do so if threatened.”

This isn’t just silly stuff, either…..at least, it was published “in the brain research journal Neuron”. It’s actually looking at people who have been threatened if they are dishonest, and monitoring their brain activity….it seems that there is one part of the brain that lights up on the functional magnetic resonance imager if a threat is issued.

Who was it that said some things are so ridiculous that only a university professor could believe it? I guess I’m suggesting a corollary—some things are so obvious, only a university professor could doubt them!

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Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/04 at 01:00 PM

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