Rather than dive into a long, deep discussion on the question highlighted by this study, I want to use this opportunity to simply stimulate some reflection by my readers. In this study, 90 five-year-olds were studied in how they responded to an experiment. The researchers divided the 90 children into 3 groups. All three groups were taken to a room where 3 games were played. They were told that they would be brought back to this room later and rewarded stickers for how well they did on one particular game of the three.
With one group they discussed how it would feel to win lots of stickers. With one group, they discussed how it would feel to only win a few stickers. With the final group, no discussion of sticker success was undertaken.
They then offered the children to play one of the games before going back into the room to try to win stickers. The children who were influenced by hearing how it would feel to not win many stickers chose the game that determined the sticker count more than the other groups.
Now with that in mind, who would be concerned about learning how to influence children? Parents spend their married life trying to understand their own children through different changing stages of life. Lots of prayer and fasting occur in trying to raise our children.
My question for you asks if you think research like this may be used to influence our children in ways we don’t approve of. Something makes me feel uneasy about this. It feels a little like manipulation. This and other such influence could be used in nefarious ways. Just take a moment to think about the direction our society is going in. If we want to help our children live healthier, more abundant lives, we need to think about what the society around us is trying to do to them.
Primary Article:
Felix Schreiber, Silvia Schneider, Albert Newen, Babett Voigt. Negative (but not positive) affective episodic future thinking enhances proactive behavior in 5-year-old children.. Emotion, 2024; DOI: 10.1037/emo0001345
Thanks to Science Daily:
Ruhr-University Bochum. “What motivates preschoolers to prepare for the future.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 May 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240514141400.htm>.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
