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medpundit |
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Sunday, October 13, 2002For their study, 61 college undergraduates--32 men and 29 women--were told to imagine that they had been robbed, and that the robber had afterwards either apologized, restored to them the things he or she had stolen, apologized and made restitution, or did neither. Overall, the students had lower heart rates when they imagined that the robber had given them a strong, guilt-ridden apology and made restitution to compensate for the stolen items and trouble he or she had caused, study findings indicate. Further, the students also showed less muscle tension in their face--such as less wrinkling of the brow--and had less stress and lower blood pressures. In other findings, when the students imagined that they had received a strong apology and had been compensated, they experienced a reduction in their level of unforgiveness that was twice as great as when they imagined themselves to have just received a strong apology, according to Worthington. The students also said they felt more forgiveness, gratitude and empathy and less anger, fear and sadness, study findings indicate. Finally, the undergraduates also said they felt more in control. I'd say that's true. I've mentioned this before, but I notice that it takes a lot longer for my patients to feel better after an injury if someone else caused it than if it's a result of their own action or negligence. This is especially true in auto accidents. The rear-ended inevitably hurt longer than the rear-ender. posted by Sydney on 10/13/2002 07:19:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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