THAT'S MEN:Act with cheerfulness and life will be better
HEAVY MEN in bars have been getting attention recently in the world of psychology because of research suggesting that when they have drink taken they are more aggressive than smaller men. They are also more aggressive than big – and smaller – women.
The findings underline the link between mind, body and behaviour, a link you'll be hearing more about next year when a movie called Counterclockwisecomes out.
In the study, US and Dutch researchers gave almost 900 men and women either alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks. They were then invited to play a game in which they could administer electric shocks to an opponent at the end of each round.
The study found that heavy men who have drink taken are more aggressive than anyone else when it comes to dishing out electric shocks.
This is why people who get sloshed and pick fights with the biggest guy in the bar – and there are such people – are in for a tough time. But it’s also an example of that body, mind, behaviour link.
The researchers suggest that being "weighty" makes heavy people feel more important and, therefore, more entitled to act aggressively. The names and work addresses of the researchers are in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Any heavy people who are annoyed about all this should apply the electrodes to them and not to me.
However, 110 years ago the great American psychologist, William James, was already writing about the mind, body, behaviour link.
If you see something that frightens you – a tiger in your bathroom, say – you start running in the opposite direction before you realise you feel fear. It’s like jumping and screaming in your seat at a horror movie – you’ve made a show of yourself before you realise it.
From this he deduced that if you put a smile on your face and walk around as though you are happy, you will have a better chance of feeling happy. Similarly, if you walk around like a misery guts you have a better chance of feeling miserable.
Another example: back in the 1970s researchers Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin encouraged a group of residents in a US nursing home to take responsibility for their own living space – looking after a plant and cleaning the room for instance – and to make as many choices as they could about their lives. The other residents were “looked after” completely by the staff.
A year and a half later, those who were given responsibility for their activities were healthier, happier and more likely to be alive than the “cared for” group. Langer and Rodin concluded that the freedom to make choices was the key contributor to these remarkable results.
Langer has been studying this mind, body, behaviour connection ever since. Thirty years ago she brought men in their late 70s and early 80s to an old monastery in New Hampshire. One group spent a week in a section that had been fitted out to mimic the year 1959: Rosemary Clooney on the radio, Sgt Bilko on the television and so on. Their task was to relive that era. The other group had no such props but were encouraged to converse about the past. All were encouraged to look after their own cooking and living space.
After a week, the men’s memory and hearing had improved as had their strength. The biggest health improvements were found in the men who had mimicked the past for the week.
Was it the reminders of their younger days that made the difference? Or was it camaraderie, fellowship, cheer and responsibility? Whatever it was, we see again the importance of the body, mind, behaviour connection.
The take-home message? Act with curiosity and cheerfulness, even if you have to fake it, and there’s a good chance life will be better.
You can read the first chapter of Ellen Langer's book, Counterclockwise, on her website ellenlanger.com. The movie of the book, reportedly starring Jennifer Aniston, is due out next year.
Padraig OMorain (pomorain@ireland.com) is a counsellor accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy