Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Are thoughts germs and can they be transmitted to other people via the internet just like a disease? The answer will surprise you

I saw this on io9 yesterday, and as the video actually requests for all viewers to share then you are the people I've chosen to infect. It begins with a premise: are thoughts germs? Can they be transmitted from one person to another? Watch this and explore the psychology of how a one-standard deviation increase in the amount of anger an article evokes can increase the odds (for example) that it will make the most e-mailed list by 34% on The New York Times. Sure, it's a wee bit long but it has advice that should you follow it, may just aid in helping you keep a healthy mind. And who doesn't want a healthy mind?

8 comments:

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    1. Pat, you should take the time and watch the video. For me, it put into perspective how much time I've wasted arguing with people on the internet. Some of them are bloggers that I shall not mention.

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  2. WOW. That's insane. Do they make germX for minds?

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  3. Makes me want to share the video... and yet I hesitate to infect others. lol.

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  4. It's all rather scary. But I never argue with people on the Internet.

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  5. That was hilarious, and frighteningly true! I'm tempted to sneeze...

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  6. Gee, this makes partisan politics make a whole lot more sense...

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  7. This is a wonderful little video, and scary -- I'm forwarding it to a couple friends who'll love it.

    One thing that struck me right off: Emotions are the language of the subconscious, which has been compared in intelligence to a five-year-old. So when these emotions spread like germs (which I definitely believe), that can be very dangerous because it means we're letting our inner five-year-old rule us.

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