Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by disgruntledphd2 2747 days ago
Overall, 67% of men shocked themselves at least once, in Study 10 of a bunch of studies.

The full text is on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4330241/ and the data can be found at: https://osf.io/cgwdy/

Like, I'm not sure I believe this, but at least the data is available, so other people can try different things with it.
2 comments
myrryr 2747 days ago
So what does that feel like? Don't underestimate curiosity.
link
some_not_all 2747 days ago
Yeah, I'm aware. Can we frame the concept differently?

Why the projection of "alone with thoughts"? Why seed the concept of existential dread in the mind of the reader of the study results?

How do the researchers know that it was assuredly the terror of the subject's own mind, their internal monologue or what have you, which certainly provoked them to preoccupy themselves with pain?

Answer: they cannot know why the individuals shocked themselves, but only that the shock happened.

link
disgruntledphd2 2746 days ago
Totally agreed. I have this dataset open in R at home, and intend to dig into it a bit more. One would expect the meditation participants to be more comfortable.

But to be fair, if I was left alone in a room with a button that would shock me, I would probably push the button at least once.

link
ajsalminen 2745 days ago
> But to be fair, if I was left alone in a room with a button that would shock me, I would probably push the button at least once.

That was my thought as well but didn't they provide a sample of how it feels to each participant beforehand so it was not new to them anymore?

link