Good Manners May Be a Pact to Reduce Physical Effort
March 25, 2011
U.S. News & World Report (HealthDay):
Not only is holding the door open for others a nice gesture, it’s also a nod to the physical effort of those involved, researchers report.
Their study, to be published in Psychological Science, combined two seemingly unrelated fields — altruism and motor control.
“The way etiquette has been viewed by Emily Post — that you’re being proper by following social codes — is undoubtedly part of it,” David A. Rosenbaum, of Pennsylvania State University, said in a journal news release. “Our insight is there is another contributor: the mental representation of other people’s physical effort.”
Read the whole story: U.S. News & World Report
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