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Uncertainty can be more stressful than clear negative feedback

Some individuals would rather receive clear negative information than deal with ambiguity or uncertainty, according to new research out of the University of Toronto.

[  ]…looked at the response of the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain area associated with error-monitoring and conflict-related anxiety. They found that individuals with high levels of neuroticism, a personality trait related to negative emotion and anxiety, showed stronger responses in this brain region when they were given uncertain feedback, compared with when they were given unambiguous negative feedback.

“Uncertainty can be very stressful,” Hirsh said. “What this study shows is that neurotic individuals are actually more comfortable with clear negative information than they are with uncertainty – even when the outcome of that uncertainty could be positive. In other words, people who are high in neuroticism appear to prefer the devil they know over the devil they don’t know.”

I’m fine with ambiguity. I actually wish, at times, that people would not share their feelings quite so much. Critics can sometimes be your best friend – unlike your real friends whose inarticulated friendship contract requires that they be supportive and not be blunt. Sometimes the critics, that might well be right or at least have something relevant to add, use the occasion to pass on negative feedback as more a way for them to vent then be constructive. If there is any useful about to pour forth from the critic it almost always gets out in the first two sentences, this is also about the time i start thinking about what I’ll have for dinner, since everything that comes after those two sentences tends to be more about using me rather then confronting some personal problem.

san francisco late sixties. the posters in the background are, left to right – Jean Harlow (March 3, 1911–June 7, 1937), Marlon Brando, Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) and Marlene Dietrich, (December 27 1901–May 6 1992).

san francisco late 60s #2. fried chicken with fries 89 cents or chili with crackers 25 cents.

san francisco late 60s #3. self explanatory in the way of basic human nature, but the looks on their faces, what they’re thinking at the moment – a little bit of mystery.

Top Ten 1967 – some of these, like I’m A Believer and Happy Together eventually got to #1

1. To Sir With Love, Lulu
2. Happy Together, The Turtles
3. Windy, Association
4. Ode To Billie Joe, Bobby Gentry
5. I’m A Believer, The Monkees
6. Light My Fire, The Doors
7. Somethin’ Stupid, Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra
8. The Letter, Box Tops
9. Groovin’, Young Rascals
10. Kind Of A Drag, Buckinghams

We all know at least one, probably more – its Ok when they do it, Why the U.S. blinked on its troop agreement with Iraq

The White House defended what it called a “mutually agreed to agreement.” Spokeswoman Dana Perino said: “We asked for some things that we didn’t get, they asked for some things that they didn’t get. And we met them somewhere right in the middle.”

Pentagon officials, however, said the White House made unprecedented concessions. In addition to allowing Iraq to search cargo and mail under some conditions, the deal bars U.S. forces from launching attacks on other countries from Iraqi soil and permits Iraq to prosecute U.S. military contractors, and in some cases perhaps also American troops, under Iraqi law.

Cheney could still get his invasion, he just couldn’t do it from Iraq without sabotaging George’s security agreement.