Front on me, oh no, you know I’m loco
Can you take away the feelings of guilt through self harm? Well, here’s one way to find out.
Take 59 Australian students, and split them into three groups. Get two groups to write about something they did that they feel guilty about.
Then get one of those groups to stick their arms into iced water. The other group gets nice warm water. The third group writes about just some everyday interaction, but then they get the ice bath too.
When Brock Bastian, of the University of Queensland, and colleagues did that they found a couple of things. First the students who wrote about about a guilt-ridden experience really did feel more guilty.
Second, these guilt-ridden students kept their arms in the ice bath longer than the guilt-free students. What’s more, their level of guilt dropped more than the guilt-ridden students who had a warm water bath.
photo { Nikola Tamindzic }
related { Can one have pain and not know it? }
