tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7905515.post2142324038774895673..comments2024-03-14T11:09:32.759-05:00Comments on Falkenblog: Dan Ariely Wrong on Bandages?Eric Falkensteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07243687157322033496noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7905515.post-49807476092195459862009-12-16T21:46:57.842-06:002009-12-16T21:46:57.842-06:00I trust Ariely's anecdote a lot more than I tr...I trust Ariely's anecdote a lot more than I trust the cited "scientific" experiment. I myself switched from ripping my kids' band-aids off fast do doing it slowly after reading Predictably Irrational - I think it is not the integration of pain that matters, but the degree to which you feel in control of the process and the peak intensity of pain.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7905515.post-40541761420979602132009-12-16T10:48:41.601-06:002009-12-16T10:48:41.601-06:00Subjective pain-ratings seem 20th Century. Wouldn&...Subjective pain-ratings seem 20th Century. Wouldn't brain-scan data settle the question more definitively?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7905515.post-86712735929603832009-12-16T10:34:42.856-06:002009-12-16T10:34:42.856-06:00It is difficult to dispute Dan Ariely's opinio...It is difficult to dispute Dan Ariely's opinion because he is speaking out of intimate personal experience. Yet it is striking that he did not insist that the nurses remove his bandages <b>slowly</b>, as he says that is better, so the procedure would last two or three hours instead the one normally took. He says that the power relationship - he was a powerless patient vs the physical and institutional power of the nurses - made it impossible for him to dispute the nurses's decisions. Allow me disagree. I am familiar with Beit Loewinstein Hospital in Israel where wounded soldiers and so are treated, and the staff goes to great extremes to get feedback from the patients and to do what they demand. Ariely presents the hospital as an authoritarian rigid vertical structure, which simply is not true. Nurses stations are full of brochures about "the patient's rights" and so on, and they are taken very seriously. The patients are much respected (many are war heroes) and their opinions are NOT dismissed. My point is: Had Ariely been really convinced that he was being treated wrongly and tortured unnecessarily, he could have asked - no, he could have demanded - to remove his bandages slowly. He didnt. He preferred to accept the "wrong procedure" and the consequent torture and take satisfaction in the idea that he was very smart and he knew more than the professionals. BTW, I have met many people who insist telling anecdotes of how they were right while the medical staff knew nothing and were wrong. Since I am not a cruel person, normally I keep my silence. I hope that Ariely will not be hurt by this impersonal comment on Falkenblog.Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05676167615981895061noreply@blogger.com