{"id":3061,"date":"2022-05-30T16:16:17","date_gmt":"2022-05-30T15:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/?page_id=3061"},"modified":"2022-05-31T19:19:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T18:19:06","slug":"think-less","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/june-2022\/think-less\/","title":{"rendered":"Think Less!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keith Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a while since we last had a puzzle page in Forty-Three, but you might like to try this little challenge. It\u2019s not too taxing and you could be surprised at the outcome. Please don\u2019t cheat; try the puzzle before you read on. Simply look at the diagram and work out what you need to change to make it symmetrical around the vertical red centre line. There are no hidden tricks. Squares can be grey or white. That\u2019s all there is to it!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Puzzle provided by K Wilson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What was your solution? Did you (mentally) colour in the two middle squares in the far-right column? If so, you\u2019re in excellent company. When a similar test was posed as part of a study in the USA, 80% of people did exactly that. Only 20% saw the alternative: remove the two grey squares in the far-left column. The study was an investigation into whether people systematically overlook solutions that involve removing things, preferring to favour solutions that add things \u2013 and it found that they do.<\/p>\n

How is this relevant to Quakers? Hmm. Well, the authors of the study (full reference below) say,<\/p>\n

\u201cDefaulting to additive changes may be one reason that people struggle to mitigate \u2026 damaging effects on the planet.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Personally, I think that\u2019s reasonably relevant!<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s more! I was introduced to this study by my good friend Bodo Winter, an exceptionally talented linguist working at University of Birmingham. Based on the study\u2019s findings, he carried out research to see whether the preference for additive solutions was reflected in language. In short, his results (as yet unpublished) confirm that it is. He found that words related to addition are more frequent and slightly more positive than those related to subtraction. He also found that verbs like \u2018change\u2019 and \u2018improve\u2019 are more closely related to \u2018add\u2019 and \u2018addition\u2019 than to \u2018subtract\u2019 and
\n\u2018subtraction\u2019.<\/p>\n

It seems that not only are we predisposed to prefer solutions that involve addition, it\u2019s possible that we also talk \u2013 and maybe even think \u2013 about these solutions more easily and more positively. I wouldn\u2019t like to speculate about why this might be. Are we born favouring additive solutions, or have we been conditioned by the consumer society in which we live? Answering that question is, I\u2019m afraid, going to be left as an exercise for the reader!<\/p>\n

Those of you who know me well will know that I struggle with the Quaker testimony to simplicity; my home is more of a testimony to clutter! It\u2019s unlikely that the findings I\u2019ve reported here are going to change that any time soon. They have, however, made me realise that in deciding between adding and subtracting, I have an in-built bias for which I need to compensate, and I need keep in mind that it\u2019s easier and more comfortable to think and talk about adding than subtracting.<\/p>\n

I wonder if awareness of these factors could also be helpful in our Quaker decision-making processes. In short, might we benefit from putting in the extra effort it takes to think less?<\/p>\n

The article referenced is:<\/em> Adams, G.S. et al. (2021)
\n\u2018People systematically overlook subtractive changes\u2019, Nature, 592(7853), pp. 258\u2013261.
\ndoi:10.1038\/s41586-021-03380-y.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the final stages of proofreading this newsletter, Anne Watson sent this merry response to Keith’s article.<\/p>\n

Watch for her full explanation in Forty-Three’s<\/em> July issue!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Back to June 2022 Newsletter Main Page<\/a><\/p>\n

Forty-Three<\/em> Newsletter \u2022 Number 518 \u2022 June 2022
\n<\/strong>Oxford Friends Meeting
\n43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW<\/p>\n

newsletter@oxfordquakers.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2022, Oxford Quakers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keith Wilson It\u2019s been a while since we last had a puzzle page in Forty-Three, but you might like to try this little challenge. It\u2019s not too taxing and you could be surprised at the outcome. Please don\u2019t cheat; try the puzzle before you read on. Simply look at the diagram and work out what … Continue reading Think Less!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"parent":3001,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3061","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3061"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3129,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3061\/revisions\/3129"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}