Psychologyspeaking topic
The hot-cold empathy gap: why can't we predict our hungry self when we're full, or our angry self when we're calm? How does our current emotional state block us from foreseeing our future decisions?
— George Loewenstein, hot-cold empathy gap
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- Young children constantly mix up 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow', because time words are abstract. Curiously, most languages map time onto space: past behind us, future ahead. But some do the reverse and place the past in front, because you can 'see' it. Why can't we think about time at all without assigning it a direction we've never actually seen?
- A child who learns the word 'foot' finds it strange at first that a table has feet too, then takes it for granted. Language projects our body onto everything: the foot of a mountain, the eye of a needle, the neck of a bottle. Why must we understand the world by first mapping it onto our own body?
- The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.
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- The paradox of choice: Barry Schwartz argues that more options don't set us free, they paralyze us and leave us less happy. Would fewer options actually make us freer?