Duck’s Quarterback goes “Up in Smoke”

I’m writing in a state of bewilderment. I’m amazed when talented young people who have a better than average chance at greatness piss it away. I recently travelled back to Eugene, Oregon, for my once-per-year indulgence in the fruits of home:  the beautiful forested scenery, Pinot Noir and elegantly prepared local fair enjoyed with friends and family. I’ve been calm.  Nothing out of the ordinary had happened until last Thursday morning. We Oregonians are mild-mannered folks, for the most part, but there is one topic that can turn the greatest peace-loving hippy among us from flowers and joints to hate, fits of rage and potentially violent outbursts. I’m writing, of course, about the University of Oregon Ducks football team. So when I turned to the City Region section of the local newspaper, The Register-Guard, and found that our star quarterback, Jeremiah Masoli, who led our Ducks to the Rose Bowl last season was now the former quarterback, I was distraught. Why could this be, I thought? I read on.  Apparently, he brought in on himself. The coach kicked him off the team after a serious of misadventures, getting caught driving like a jackass with pot in his glove box was simply his latest. Even in Oregon, a pot-smoking hippy State, anyone can get into trouble for such an offense…unless you have your “green card” of course. Even so, Masoli is fighting the charges.

Naturally, I thought of many internal attributes to account for the cause of Masoli’s behavior (i.e., irresponsible jackass who puts himself before his team, or simply thinks he can get away with anything) as Gill and Andreychik (2009) would expect. They note that antisocial responses to others are generally characterized by internal explanations. Inversely, external explanations (explanations that point to outside forces as having pushed a transgressor to their deeds) are generally accompanied by feelings of compassion and other prosocial responses. While I’ve read this article many times, and understand that external forces are likely to be present in many circumstances, even in the case of Masoli, I feel compelled to reject them. He has put our team’s standing for next year’s season in jeopardy, and in that part of the country, this is a greater sacrilege than back-washing into the Eucharist cup. Perhaps, in time, I will learn to forgive this nincompoop, but it isn’t likely to come soon. We will just have to see how the season turns out. Either way, I’m pissed.

Masoli stiff-arms latest charges : The former Duck quarterback pleads not guilty, hires a defense attorney and gets some free PR help

Getting Emotional About Explanations: Social Explanations and Social Explanatory Styles as Bases of Prosocial Emotions and Intergroup Attitudes

Social communication and SHOUTING MATCHES

Although it may seem like a breeze at times, the back and forth of social interactions is replete with intricacies. When two or more persons are interacting subtle events such as pauses, gestures, eye movements etc. may signal the need for a response. Van Kleef (2010) and others include the expression of emotion to the repertoire of social information. Originally presented as the manifestation of physiological arousal meant to prepare the individual to respond adaptively, researchers have found that the expression emotion can also provide social signals. A good example could be an escalating shouting match that is typical of sports games. Usually an individual will begin shouting and another person reciprocates.

However, shouting is the outcome; before shouting the expression of anger more than likely takes place. One individual more than likely expressed anger. As Van Kleef notes, anger is usually reciprocated with more anger; and so the cycle continues. The end result is the always entertaining and viscerally charged shouting match. Van Kleef writes, that the processing of social information occurs unconsciously and so how one ended up shouting or even reciprocating the anger of another may not be clear to the individual. Thus making an escalated shouting match fun to observe.

Moreover, the social signal of emotion is not limited to bouts of anger such as when two people are laughing and commenting about the shouting match.

See more: The Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera Bust Up

Van Kleef, G.A. (2010). The emerging view of emotion as social information.

Going for the Gold

The Winter Olympics have been a huge draw for many people this year. In fact, for Americans and Canadians, they have dominated the television ratings since opening night. Given the excitement of many of the sports, it’s not surprising the games have garnered so much attention. In fact, when comparing these games to the Summer Olympics, it seems that many of the featured sports are considered rather extreme and dangerous. There is snowboarding, which landed one American Olympic hopeful in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury prior to the games. Then there are the high speed sports of skeleton and luge, which involves athletes sledding on a track either head first (in the case of skeleton) or feet first (in the case of luge) with no protection other than a helmet. The danger of these latter two sports has been especially apparent following the death of a Georgian athlete during a training run in which he was traveling at an estimated 89 miles per hour.

So why is it that so many athletes not only choose to participate in a sport with such risk but seem to be constantly pushing themselves to more extreme levels? One possible answer comes from the personality psychology literature and is related to a trait called Sensation Seeking. This individual difference, which is thought to vary from person to person, is often characterized by 4 behaviors: Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Experience Seeking, Disinhibition, and Boredom Susceptibility. Not surprisingly, individuals who score high in this measure are more likely to engage is risky behavior that is known to be thrilling and provide high levels of excitement. Also not surprisingly, athletes who participate in extreme sports (such as skydiving) rate especially high on this measure. What’s also interesting is some researchers have argued that sensation seeking involves addictive-like components. Namely, high sensation seekers experience a “rush” when engaging in risky behaviors but often need to engage in even riskier behavior soon after to experience this same feeling.

It’s no wonder then that so many athletes who participate in the Winter Olympics are returning every 4 years with bigger and faster maneuvers. When competing in a sport filled with people who are always looking for their next rush, the words “Go big or go home” become a way of life.

The Danger of Winter Olympic Sports.

Meertens, R. M., & Lion, R. (2008). Measuring an individual’s tendency to take risks: The Rick Propensity Scale. Journal of Applied Psychology.

When Gut Feelings Trump Conscious Thought

At almost every major sports event there will be commentators giving their opinions on the predicted winners, losers, or favorites. People tend to give commentators due credibility for their knowledge of the game and sometimes experience. For the layperson however it may be better not to give the event much thought. This is true when making predictions on your own. In a recent study, Dijksterhuis and colleagues (2009) asked participants to make predictions about random football matches two weeks prior to the event. Three groups were used in this investigation. Those who were asked to guess performed the worse. Those who were asked to think about their answers performed better. But the group that performed the best was the group who thought unconsciously.

One exception however is that making predictions unconsciously without prior knowledge is not recommended. The participants who performed the best in the investigation also perceived themselves as relatively knowledgeable.  Those who made conscious decisions with relative knowledge are said to not give proper value to relevant information, hence why they performed worse. People who are essentially asked to guess tend to do worse overall. So next time there’s a football, or sports match for that matter, it might be better to not give it much thought about whom will win.

Read More: Football info

Read more: Sports commentary

Dijksterhuis, A., Bos, M.W., van der Leij, A., van Baaren, R.B. (2009) Predicting soccer matches after unconscious and conscious thought as a function of expertise.

Gender bias in track and chess

Last week an emerging track star became the focus of an international scandal. After 18-year-old Caster Semenya won the 800 meter world championships final by more than two seconds, the International Association of Athletics Federations announced the South African athlete was being required to undergo a gender determination test.

Apparently the South African improved her personal best time by seven seconds this year. After being cleared of doping, gender testing was the next “sensible” step, said I.A.A.F. spokesman Nick Davies. 

Two finalists shared the suspicion. The New York Times reported the Italian Elisa Cusma as saying, “These kind of people should not run with us.” Mariya Savinova, the fifth place finisher from Russia, agreed: “Just look at her.”

A recent study on gender reported an odd, but related, stereotype among women chess players. In on-line games, women who are aware their opponents are male play worse than if they believe their opponents are female, notwithstanding ability levels. 

Of course, gender tests are highly problematic: “Humans like categories neat,” said Alice Dreger to the New York Times, “but nature is a slob.” This didn’t stop Cusma from saying, as if to illegitimatize the track win, “For me, she’s not a woman. She’s a man.”

Perhaps Cusma would have finished higher than sixth if she had not suspected she was racing a man.