In response to one of the comments from the previous post: interestingly, I have done some research on the differences in the forms of aggression used by men and women. For a long time, people thought that women weren't really as aggressive as men, and then someone remembered that punching people isn't the only form of aggression out there.

As it turns out, women prefer to use what's called "relationship" or "indirect" aggression (big shock right?). So while a woman isn't nearly as likely as a man to actually stab you in the back, she is probably a little more likely to metaphorically do so--by gossiping about you or sabotaging your social life, career, etc.

Or she might just lynch a doll beside your desk.

I've mentioned to a few people about how everyone down here in the Metroplex seems to be a little too concerned with power, authority, and the maintenance of established hierarchies. I'm sure you'll recall Sarah's interactions with the secretary formerly at her building.

Maybe it's a holdover from the traditions established during slavery, but from what I can tell, everyone down here has to submit to somebody else, and as a result, when somebody gets an opportunity to wield power over someone else, that opportunity is absolutely relished.

Among my new fellow students at my new school, I don't really fit very well into the established hierarchy, in which the "first years" don't know anything about anything and aren't really treated with all that much respect as a result. I'm not all that special, but I have already been a grad student for a while, and it turns out that I'm good at it. Although it surprised me a little at first that some of students with more seniority turned a little cold when they found this out, I think I get the picture.

A few weeks ago, my office mate, who is a fifth-year student who doesn't spend any time on campus, told me that I could take her desk and do "whatever" with the office. I told her I would do just that, and a few days later, I rearranged it to my liking.

Which brings me to the above picture of a baby hanging from the wall of my office. It was accompanied by a nasty note from said office mate that said something to the effect of, "How dare you touch my things."

Apparently, the baby is passed back and forth among the grad students as a joke, but I'm not sure if it's typically done as some sort of a warning. Oops.

Christ instructed his followers to forgive offenses committed against them. For most of us, this isn't exactly an easy task. As it turns out, that guy from Nazareth might actually have been on to something.

Carlsmith, Wilson, & Gilbert (2008) did an experiment in which the participants played a game where the goal was to work together with the other participants (who were actually in on the experiment--confederates) to make money. One of these confederates always screwed up the game with negligence and ruined it for the real participant. Later, some of the participants were told they were going to be allowed to punish the confederate by taking money away from him. Other participants were told simply that the game was over.

All participants predicted that they would feel better if they were allowed to punish, but in reality, those who punished (a) continued to think about what happened and couldn't move on, (b) were in significantly worse moods than those who didn't punish, and even (c) thought they would have felt even worse if they hadn't been able to punish--THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT ACTUALLY WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.

In other words, even if forgiveness is hard, even if it seems like it isn't fair, even if it sometimes doesn't make sense, it's the better way. True 2000 years ago. True today. True always.

There's a notion out there that "tempting fate" is a bad idea. If your favorite basketball player is at the free throw line with the game on the line, and the announcer says that the player is a 90% shooter, chances are, he'll miss and your team will lose. If you hear there's a 50% chance of rain, and you go out without your umbrella, it will probably rain. If you don't read my blog regularly, you'll get a horrible disease and there will be weeping a gnashing of teeth. And the like.

Even though our rationality says otherwise, even though we know a 50% chance of rain is a 50% chance of rain--regardless of what we do with our umbrella--we're still nervous to "tempt fate." As it turns out, we believe these things because it's less taxing for our brains than actually figuring out rational likelihoods and probabilities (Risen & Gilovich, 2008).

So good news, if you're superstitious, or even "a little stitious," you actually have more of your brain power available to do other, more important, things; like figuring out why people keep trying to mess with David Letterman.

Recent research out of the University of Toronto suggests that, although women are initially less tolerant of pain than are men, they adapt to the pain better than men do, and it bothers them less in the long run.

Finally, an explanation for why women wear high heels and uncomfortable clothes and men don't.