36136YuNoHa HoDe 342 One Groundbreaking Experiment

WAS CONDUCTED BY DANIEL KAHNEMAN, WHO WON THE 2002 NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS. DK asked a group of volunteers to join a three-part experiment. In the 'short' part of the experiment the volunteers insert one hand into a container filled with water at 14 degr. Celsius for one minute, which is unpleasant, bordering on painful? After 60 seconds they were told to take their hand out. In the 'long' part of the experiment volunteers placed their other hand in a different water container, whose temperature was also 14 degrees Celsius but after 60 seconds hot water was secretly introduced into that container, thus slightly increasing the temperature to 15 degr. Celsius!!! And 30 seconds later they were told to pull out their hand. Some volunteers did the 'short' part first, while others began with the 'long' part. In either case, exactly 7 minutes after both parts were over came the third & most important part of this experiment! The volun-teers were told they must repeat one of the two parts; it was up to them to choose which. Fully 80% preferred to repeat the 'long' ex-periment, remembering it as less painful! This cold-water experiment is so simple, yet its implications shake the core of the liberal world view? It exposes the existence of at least two different selves within us: the experiencing self & the narrating self! The experiencing self is our moment-to-moment consciousness. For the experiencing self, it's obvious that the 'long' part of the cold-water experiment was worse! First you experience water at 14 C for 16 seconds, which is every bit as disagreeable as what you experience in the 'short' part, & then you must endure another 30 seconds of water at 15 C, which is marginally less bad, but still far from pleasant! For the experien-cing self, it is impossible that adding a slightly unpleasant experience to a very unpleasant experience will make the entire episode more appealing. However, the experiencing self remembers nothing. It tells no stories and is seldom consulted when it comes to major decisi-ons. Retrieving memories, telling stories & making big decisions are all the monopoly of a very different entity inside us: the narrating self! The narrating self is akin to Gazzaniga's left-brain interpreter. It is forever busy spinning yarns about the past & making plans for the future. Like every journalist, poet & politician, the narrating self takes many short cuts! It doesn't narrate everything, and usually weaves the story using only peak moments & end result. The value of the whole experiment is determined by averaging the peaks with the ends. Is this our way to replace experienced 'facts' with 'narrated' stories? Hence dance, songs, music, stories, literature & all funny experiments with magic, advertisements, propaganda & 'make believe': we prefer to believe in our own human tricks rather than animal experiences like mammals, hunters, apes, gorillas, chimps & bonobos! That's why all animals stay as they are & humans evolve 'faster'!