Think Again, Mojambo

In his book, Thinking Fast And Slow, Daniel Kahneman
cites experiments that reveal how words and mental ima-
gery impact the lives of the unaware.  In an experiment
at New York University, psychologist John Bargh and col-
laborators brought groups of mostly young people into a
room.  They were given a list of five words to use in writ-
ing sentences before going down the hall to another room.

The list given one group contained different words from
the list given the other groups.  Their list contained the
words, gray, wrinkle, Florida, bald, and forgetful.  When
this group finished writing, it, like the other groups, walked
down the hall to a certain room.  None of the groups knew
that they were being timed as they walked from one room
to the other, but Bargh and his team found that the group
that had written sentences with words associated with the
elderly walked significantly slower than the other groups.

Members of the "Florida Effect" group later said they were
aware of the common theme of the words on their list, but
insisted that they had no conscious awareness of "old age"
as they subseuently walked down the hall.  The good news
I see in this lies in the fact that members of  the Florida Ef-
fect group will, after this experiment, likely read and listen
with greater awareness.

What would you predict might happen if we gave a group
words such as healthy, happy, plenty, thankful, and love
to use in conversation?  What would you predict if we
gave another group words such as sick, unhappy, poor, un-
appreciative, and hate to use in conversation?  But, what
would you expect if we instructed another group to con-
vert the negative words they read or heard into positive
opposites?

Remember- Thoughts become things...choose the good ones!

Live with an attitude of gratitude
jimmie