Here's what's wrong with you if you are a southerner

[Dilettante]

The Newsmax article was about a piece in the London Spectator that used the study as a lead-in:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old&section=back&issue=2003-07-26&id=3341

The study was actually done several years ago. Not only did the experimenters bump into the students deliberately, they shouted back an insult afterwards ("???????!")

Maybe students from California were less effected because out here, that's how you say "excuse me".

IIRC they wanted to find out how stressful this was for the "victim". An increase in stress levels doesn't tell you that he is aggressive or wanted to start a fight. It does suggest that the incident seemed more dangerous to him than to someone who didn't react physiologically.

The guy who wrote the Spectator article used this as a springboard for his own smug opinions. What a prick.

 

[LawDog]

Now, let me get this straight...
... the experimenter first deliberately bumped into strangers out walking, then shouted an insult at them? Called them insulting names?



Maybe I've been in Texas too long, but why the hell was he surprised that he wound up with "belligerent solutions" to his problem self?

"nearly vanished concept of honor" my fuzzy tail. You walk down any street in Small Town Texas, bang into someone; then insult them and someone is going to stomp a mudhole in your butt and walk it dry.

That ain't honour, that's a lesson in manners and courtesy.

LawDog

 

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

ayup.

Common courtesy goes a long way. Deliberately running into someone, then uttering an insult such as that can get Bubba twisted tighter than a pig's tail. I wonder how much of the research grant went to pay for ice packs and bandaids?

Regards,
Rabbit.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I wonder how much of the research grant went to pay for ice packs and bandaids?

Probably not nearly enough to approach something resembling justice.

 

[Dilettante]

Sorry, maybe I didn't explain it well enough.

The "victims" all know that they're participating in an experiment. They just don't know what's being tested. (If they knew what to expect, it might affect the outcome.)

I don't know what they did in this case, but SOP would be something like:

Volunteer fills out forms, signs waiver. Somewhere on there is a statement like "the true purpose of the experiment may be different from what you were orignally told".
Somebody directs them "now go down the long hall there to have your measurements taken and do the interview".
On the way there, a "random" person bumps into them and says "???????!"
Then they get to the room, have their measurements taken, and do the interview.
If the researchers are considerate, and are not worried about the secret getting out generally, they'll explain what was really going on. But they can only do this after getting all of the information that they're planning to use in the report.

 

[Delmar]

I wonder what the mix was in this test as to urban vs people from the country. Urbans get their space violated much more often simply from the fact that they are packed in more tightly, where as people from the country have more room and are not used to having their space violated.

 

[Futo Inu]

Actually, Clinton is a case in point - criticize or threaten him, and you just might take an extended dirt nap - just look at the trail of bodys in Bill and Hitlery's wake. This reminds me of the Darwin award winner a few years ago when ol' girl answered an ad for roommate wanted with ol' boy. Then, as part of her college research project on human behavior/emotions, etc., she proceeded to intentionally, repeatedly irritate and upset him in every way possible, to document his response. Well, his eventual response was, he went off the deep end and killed her with blows from a hammer to the head - he must've been a Southerner too.

Seriously, Delmar, you're exactly right. This is a fundamental failure to control other variables - that being the rural-ness of the origin of the subject. More space in the south = less accustomed to the invasion of space = more offense/emotion when space is violated. Idiots.

 

[seeker_two]

At the root of it all is the nearly vanished concept of honor, which appears to be thriving south of the Mason-Dixon line....


That sounds reasonable - except how does it explain Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Edwards and Jimmy Carter?

Every Garden of Eden has a few serpents...

 

[RandyB]

Flotsam : Liberals float to the top and we ship them north.....

Asked two state cops in Arkansas if they voted for Bill. Response "Hell yes. We want to get the B@stard out of our state."

 

[Sean Smith]

One thing I've always noticed, is that the first thing out of a many Southern mouth, is a boast about how good their manners are. The second thing, is typically an insult to his visitor's heritage, state, or whatevuh! I even get that crap from some of my Southern friends and relatives. Pretty contradictory if you ask me.

Bingo. But you probably shouldn't have said that, those Southerners are violent as hell!

 

[Atticus]

Oh well, I've gotta be objective. I was raised a "tween" - in Southern Missouri and Southern Illinois. We have far more in common with our neighbors in Arkansas and Tennesee then we do with Chicagolanders.

Howevuh...some of the most friendly and polite folks I've had the pleasure to know came from Canada and the far North Eastern US, which makes me tend to agree with the earlier posts that these traits are more related to rural vs urban, than North vs South.

Regarding this "study", my first thought was that those "Southerners" were probably African Americans. How many white southern boys go to college in Michigan? Could be another issue entirely.

 

[six 4 sure]

I can’t believe I get to post after Atticus. I too grew up (and now live) in Southern Illinois. I’ve also spent some time in RURAL Nevada as well as Alabama. I agree it’s more of a rural vs. urban issue not North vs. South.

The people I associated with in Nevada, Alabama, and Southern Illinois were/are much friendlier than those from say Chicago. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone from Chicago bitch and moan about us hicks in Southern Illinois (while they were attending Southern Illinois University) I’d be able to pay for Grad School.

six

 

[JohnBT]

I still think we learned to get along most of the time because of the humidity. It was too hot and sticky during most of the year to fight.
The exception to this was not listening to momma and getting your ear twisted (there's more truth to the Granny character on the Beverly Hillbillies than fiction.)

AC ruined the South. A bunch of Yankees moved down here and built houses without front porches. You'll never get to really know your neighbors or even your own family until you've spent long hot evenings on the porch watching the fireflies and the stars come out.

John

 

[Ed N.]

"You'll never get to really know your neighbors or even your own family until you've spent long hot evenings on the porch ..."
==========================================

Saw a sign in a shop not long ago: "Good fences make good neighbors. Good porches make good friends."

Lotta truth in that.