Who is Minding the Mind?
In a recent experiment, psychologists at Yale altered people’s judgments of a stranger by handing them a cup of coffee. The study participants, college students, had no idea that their social instincts were being deliberately manipulated.
On the way to the laboratory, they had bumped into a laboratory assistant, who was holding textbooks, a clipboard, papers and a cup of hot or iced coffee — and asked for a hand with the cup.
That was all it took: The students who held a cup of iced coffee rated a hypothetical person they later read about as being much colder, less social and more selfish than did their fellow students, who had momentarily held a cup of hot java.
The new studies reveal a subconscious brain that is far more active, purposeful and independent than previously known. Goals, whether to eat, mate or devour an iced latte, are like neural software programs that can only be run one at a time, and the unconscious is perfectly capable of running the program it chooses. See the full article here.
Chadia —
Researchers have concluded that the subconscious mind is far more presumptive and independent than anticipated but perhaps this should be based on the idea that sub conscious thought was once conscious thought. Furthermore, what distinguishes conscious and subconscious thought? Are there any clear lines of distinction between these two spheres?
We may one day sit and rationally and consciously think about what we consider to be charm and emulate these same thoughts sub consciously at a social gathering. The basis is that our subconscious actions were stimulated by our once conscious thought
Spunky —
Hi Chadia,
I do absolutely agree with you. Even more…your comment made me think about one particular fact: “our” (sub)consciousness…What is it? Do WE really fully rule either of them? Is it OUR lovely selves - or somewhat else? Be that whatever, it will never cease to fascinate me.