The methodology and findings: For an eight-month period, the researchers interviewed the study participants to gauge their social personality, as well as their personal history and political leanings. When they matched this data to the participants behavior during the experiment, a distinct pattern emerged: People who were normally friendly followed orders because they didnt want to upset others, while those who were described as unfriendly stuck up for themselves. The irony is that a personality disposition normally seen as antisocial — disagreeableness — may actually be linked to pro-social behavior, writes Psychology Todays Kenneth Worthy. This connection seems to arise from a willingness to sacrifice ones popularity a bit to act in a moral and just way toward other people, animals or the environment at large. Popularity, in the end, may be more a sign of social graces and perhaps a desire to fit in than any kind of moral superiority. The study also found that people holding left-wing political views were less willing to hurt others. One particular group held steady and refused destructive orders: women who had previously participated in rebellious political activism such as strikes or occupying a factory. mic/articles/92479/psychologists-have-uncovered-a-troubling-feature-of-people-who-seem-nice-all-the-time cc: Saeid, Adam, Mary Jean, Banafsheh, Sheila
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 09:25:20 +0000