From: New York Magazine
Bad Times Bond Us Together
New York Magazine:
Harry Potter nerds, remember the scene in the first book when the kids defeat the troll? There’s a great line at the end of the chapter that goes, “There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.” Now some new research delves into that notion, further solidifying the idea that sharing a stressful or painful experience with other people helps bond us together.
The Association of Psychological Science describes the experiments like so:
In the first experiment, the researchers randomly assigned 54 students to perform either a painful task or a similar, relatively painless, task in small groups. The students submerged their hand in a bucket of water and were tasked with locating metal balls in the water and placing them into a small underwater container. For some, the water was painfully cold, while for others the water was room temperature.
Read the whole story: New York Magazine
More of our Members in the Media >
APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.
Please login with your APS account to comment.