Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Hmm...I'm skeptical

Apparently scientists are now claiming that men feel more joy when watching "bad" people suffer, while women have a stronger sense of empathy. I do wonder about this. I'm not so sure I buy it:
During the brain scans, each volunteer watched as the hands of a "fair" player and a cheater received a mild electrical shock. When it came to the fair-player, both men's and women's brains showed activation in pain-related areas, indicating that they empathized with that player's pain.
The article is talking about card players, but you know where my mind went. And that made me think of that greeting card I saw a while back: "I ran into my ex the other day...and then I backed up and ran into him again just to be sure."

On a related note, I did think to myself when I read the article, how happy some AP newswriter must have been to be able to use the word "schadenfreude" in a story. I know that would please me no end if I were a reporter.

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