Word: behaviors
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Precisely how long it takes before decorum reappears is impossible to say, but simple biology would put it somewhere between the 18-min. and 2-hr. 40-min. windows that the two ships were accorded. "Biologically, fight-or-flight behavior has two distinct stages," the researchers wrote. "The short-term response [is] a surge in adrenaline production. This response is limited to a few minutes, because adrenaline degrades rapidly. Only after returning to homeostasis do the higher-order brain functions of the neocortex begin to override instinctual responses...
...fact that the two vessels did sink is an unalterable fact of history, and while ship design and safety protocols have changed, the powder-keg nature of human behavior is the same as it ever was. The more scientists learn about how it played out in disasters of the past, the more they can help us minimize loss in the future...
...lives, we have a sometimes distorted sense of the ability of darkness to conceal. Toddlers cover their eyes when they're playing hide and seek in the belief that if they can't see you, you can't see them. In his famed 1969 experiments on human moral behavior, Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo found that if subjects were wearing dark hoods and baggy clothes, they were more inclined to administer electric shocks to other volunteers than they otherwise would...
...participants did not expect to see or talk to the recipient of their offer before or after the experiment," the researchers wrote. "Nevertheless, darkness increased self-interested behavior...
...colleagues re-ran the sunglasses test, but also asked the participants to complete a questionnaire in which they agreed or disagreed on a 1-to-7 scale with statements like "I was anonymous during the study," "I was watched during the study" and "Others were paying attention to my behavior during the study." Again, the people wearing sunglasses scored significantly higher on the perception of anonymity study, even though they all rationally knew the glasses made no difference. (See the 25 crimes of the century...