Sunday, September 26, 2010

Empathy Gaps, your "Hot and Cold" States

In the Futile Pursuit of Happiness, Professor and economist George Loewenstein talks about and explains Empathy Gaps or as he says it “hot or cold” states. Empathy Gaps are thoughts and behavior we cannot predict. Hot states usually occur when you are experiencing anxiety, courage, fear, drug craving, or sexual excitation; whereas in a cold states you are more rational and calm. We tend to use these empathy gaps when we’re excited in any kind of way (hot) or in a calm state of mind (cold) for whatever reasons in everyday life.
As humans we tend to use more of our “hot” state instead of our “cold” because we seek the “thrill” or excitement in life. I believe this occurs more often in teens and young adults because we act like we don’t care about life. We live for the moment and whatever happens happens.
 In my experience I was absolutely in my “hot” state. It was my junior year of high school and it was the annual senior fashion show where everyone comes dressed like its mini fashion week. Well my friends and I were no exception. When the show was done we decided we were going to go to Times Square to hang out some more before we all had to start heading home. We were there for a while, almost an hour and just before we decided to leave we saw this party bus with people on it and the music was really good. We asked if it was free and they said yes; then one thing led to another and next thing we knew we were on the bus.
My friends started drinking and we’re all dancing but then I notice that we were on the bus for quite some time now. We decided to get off but when we told them to stop they pulled out a bill of how much money we owed them for the ride and the drinks. We owed them over $100. The only money we had on us was our only way home. We ended up paying them about $60-$70 because that’s all we had and then they threaten to call the cops on us. At this point my “hot” state got even higher because they refuse to let us off the bus. The whole time they were threatening us I kept on staring at the emergency escape just incase we needed to run for it. Luckily they had a change of heart and they let us off the bus on the other side of the city.
I n my experience your “Hot and Cold” state can trigger how fast and how you react towards unpredictable situations like mine. It’s all apart of human nature and it’s just an instinct we all have to live with each day.

5 comments:

  1. This post was really interesting, it really grabbed my attention. I enjoyed all the detail of the story, even though it sounded like a bad experience. I'm also glad you ended up fine!
    Although I think the empathy gap can happen to anyone no matter what age really because its all about flood of emotions. Also about how you react to the same situation in a hot state & a cold state.

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  2. Hey Tashana, I'm very sorry to hear about how such fashion night could turn out this way. While I was reading through your post, I felt very much as if I were engaged in a conversation with you. I also noted that there were parts in which you used slang. Your introduction and explanation of what the empathy gap is, was strong, but your conclusion seemed a bit rushed and incomplete. Finally, you may have been able to connect Loewenstein's concept of empathy gap a little better to your own personal experience. This is because it seems that you only mentioned what happened to you and didn't really connect it to or explain the relationship to empathy gap. Otherwise, great work. Don't be discouraged from my comment. We all have lots of work to do. But for a first blog, I feel you did great!

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  3. Personally I think that's a crazy story.LOL. and you definitely showed what a "hot" and "cold" state is. I'm happy nothing bad happened to you because in situations like that it could have gone plenty of different ways. I love the flow of your writing and I didn't lose focus at all while reading this.

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  4. What a perfect example - I felt the same feelings you describe as I read it. Like your other readers have noted, this was a powerful example and your style makes people feel connected to you. Juan has done a great job giving you useful feedback to upgrade a good essay into a great one!

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  5. Wow what a crazy night!I totally agree about teens and young adults living in a "hot" states, because I believe that most decisions and the risks they take are in this state.I didn't like how those people mislead you in believing the partybus was free,your choice may have been different if they told you the truth.Great job :)

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