becarefulread

Have you ever found yourself in a bad mood for no
apparent reason? There is a very strong possibility that it
could be related to what you have been reading, or what
radio station you have been listening to.

In a recent study involving our moods, John Bargh, Mark
Chen, and Lara Burrows made a game that involved a
scrambled sentence test. Subjects were given a scrambled
sentence of 15 words, and then had to make as many
15word sentences with those words as they could. Now,
one group was given words that had to do with poor
behavior: "intrude", "aggressively", "sarcastic" etc. There
were two other groups as well. The neutral group that had
very neutral words, and the polite group that had words
like " kind", "joyful", "cooperative", etc.

The subjects were not aware that there were different
versions of the test, and had no idea what the real purpose
of the study was. Each subject had about 5 minutes of
doing the puzzle. The crucial point came when a subject
walked out of the room to inform them that they had
finished the test, only to see the person who was running
the experiment speaking to someone. Here was what the
study was really interested in: would the subject interrupt?
The results are very revealing!

Just over 15% of those who had been doing the puzzles
with polite words interrupted within 10 minutes. Those who
had been using poor behavior word puzzles had a 60%
interrupt ratio in the same ten minute period.

This technique is called the Velten Procedure and is super
effective at inducing moods in groups of people. This
method was developed in the 1960's and has unlimited
possibilities for personal development. This experiment
shows that in only 5 minutes of manipulating words, just
words, behavior can be predictably influenced.

Our moods are heavily influenced by what we read, who we
hang out with, the music we listen to, and countless other
things in our daily surroundings. Without an increased
awareness of and selectivity on our part, we don't even
have a say on whether to accept the influence or not.

Once in these foul moods, everything else we encounter
will be tainted by them. If you anticipate someone is going
to be rude to you, you become rude yourself first, and then
infect the other person with your mood. It's really scary how
easily we push other people into roles without realizing it,
and thus our own predictions are confirmed.

Listen this week to what the words of the music you listen
to are "priming "your mind to think about. Do you listen to
country music and songs of divorce, sadness, hangovers,
and hard times? Is it possible that you could be setting
your thoughts in the wrong direction each morning? What if
you were to listen to upbeat instrumental music?
Have fun investigating this for yourself, and find out how
many little alterations you could make that would thrust
your mind in empowering new directions.

© Copyright 2007 Vincent Harris. All rights reserved