Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Correlation Games

Shame about past alcoholism predicts relapse and declining health in recovering alcoholics
"Our research suggests that shaming people for difficult-to-curb behaviors may be exactly the wrong approach to take," Tracy and Randles argue. "Rather than prevent future occurrences of such behaviors, shaming may lead to an increase in these behaviors."
My turn:  You're measuring an indirect correlation between effects. People with messed up amygdalas have hypersensitivity to error and impulsive behavior. Accumulating pathology in alcoholics causes both increased feelings of shame and likelihood to relapse.  Yes shaming is unproductive , but trust me, the sense of failure is physiological- spontaneous and insistent even if there is nobody there to criticize.

See rule #1 below.