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Gene Variant Can Cause Nattering Nabobs of Negativity
Freshly Exhumed writes "Researchers from the University of British Columbia, Cornell University and Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health report in the journal Psychological Science [abstract; press release] that a gene variant can cause individuals to perceive the negative side of every situation. UBC Prof. Rebecca Todd said the ADRA2b deletion variant influences not only emotional memory, which was previously known, but also amplifies a person's real-time perception of events, for better or for worse. 'Some individuals are predisposed to see the world more darkly than others,' Todd said. 'What we found is that a previously known genetic variation causes some individuals to perceive the world more vividly than others and, particularly, negative aspects of the world.'"
They'll go away.
beta.slashdot.org = vomit
A gene that makes me see things negatively? This explains SO MUCH. Please tell me they are working on a way to toggle it off. Just once I'd like to not instinctively see the negative in everything.
that causes individuals to always post 'Correlation != Causation" in response to stories about research studies?
BTW the whole thing sucks.
It might be tempting to say that everyone would be better off if they had this gene expressed in moderation, but I don't think it's quite so simple. Civilizations are no more than breaths in the life of our species, and we have no reason to believe living conditions in ten thousand years will be much like they are now. An appropriate expression of this gene for our current situation might be inappropriate later, so I recommend against removing this variation from our species. Like the variations preserved in the last wild wheat that still lives in forgotten corners of Ethiopia, strange copies or expressions of this gene might be vital against some threat we can't even conceive today.
Stop learning! Only you can prevent esoterrorism.
This is going to be the newest thing that every special little snowflake on the internet self-diagnoses with in order to get some attention. It's the next OCD.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
I've probably got about five of those.
This sucks
I wouldn't want a professor that's all positive about the subject their teaching about, better a negative teacher with perspective than an airhead that can only smile and wink...
This is called evolution, and why it's relevant to average people is beyond me "unless you want to modify people into become yes-men"
Great, there is no bright side.
is not a disease to be cured.
This is just all made up crap from the right.
Why can't they leave things alone?
The left is always making shit up like this!
gene which causes unquestioning blind obedience to the idiots in charge.
And now if you will excuse me I have some severed heads I need to ...
mount on fence posts
Well that sucks.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Is there a gene variant for always having to express ideas in terns of cliches, idioms, colloquialisms, metaphors, and/or pop-culture references?
It's probably the gene that makes me really good at software testing. I have a knack for zeroing in on whatever is screwed up ;)
"Researchers from the University of British Columbia, Cornell University and Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health report in the journal Psychological Science [abstract; press release] that lack of a gene variant can cause individuals to perceive the unrealistically positive side of every situation. UBC Prof. Rebecca Todd said lack of the ADRA2b deletion variant influences not only poorer emotional memory, which was previously known, but also amplifies a person's real-time perception of events, for better or for worse. 'Some individuals are predisposed to see the world more darkly than others,' Todd said. 'What we found is that a previously known genetic variation causes some individuals to perceive the world more vividly than others and, particularly, negative aspects of the world.' Everyone else suffers from ignoring negative aspects, believing in the health benefits of unicorn poop, enjoying Justin Bieber, believing whatever they're told can't possibly be that bad, cherishing lies like ‘it will all work out in the end’ and ‘make love not war’, and voting for touchy-feely criminal terror-pedo-politicians hiding behind vapid ideological promises and in particular socialism."
And if anyone disagrees they can now say I have a genetic disorder, how swell; it's better than the racism card!
[only mildly sarcastic] Someone needs to fire the nukes already, come on Skynet I dare you! (Unless you have a better solution; I'm fine with that). [end mild sarcasm]
> Gene Variant Can Cause Nattering Nabobs of Negativity
What makes the opposite gene so special? Fuck those Bloviating Brownnosers of Buttkissing.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The gene pool is half empty!
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
I probably have this gene. I doubt they'll be able to find a cure for it. Even if they did, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to afford it. There'll probably be some horrible side effects, too—there always are. Bummer...
I thought this was an article about Ubuntu.
Nattering Nabob of Negativity
Sounds like the codename of an Ubuntu distribution.
An alternative explanation might be that the world is actually an extremely negative place.
Just one critical piece of alternate information blows this theory right out of the water.
Wouldn't the first diligence in such "research" be to determine whether the world is actually an inherently positive or negative place?
Typical pseudo-psychological claptrap that is more-or-less the norm from the pseudo-psychology-science (wow, am I negative!?)
It allows people to see the world in it's true light. The rest of the world seems to be under the false delusion that there is some hope and meaning out there. Some people are just weak. They are unable to take on the world in all it's horror. For them to survive they must create a dream world where everything is 'all right'.
'Some individuals are predisposed to see the world more darkly than others,' Todd said. 'What we found is that a previously known genetic variation causes some individuals to perceive the world more vividly than others and, particularly, negative aspects of the world.'"
Depression is a mental disorder caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, ...
No. Nobody knows what causes depression and neither does anyone know why anti-depressants work. Researchers are going batty trying to figure out why anti-depressants work on some people - many times, anti-depressants are no more effective than exercise or talk therapy and in some cases actually do worse. YMMV and talk to your doc.
The whole "depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain" was pretty much made up by the pharmaceutical industry to sell drugs.
You walk up to a giant impassable wall, and from a distance, it cannot be done. It cannot be scaled, it cannot be undermined. Realists and pessimists turn around and try to find another way. Those who worry less get closer, and notice the small gap that can't be seen from a distance, and can walk right through.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Anyone interested in this should get a copy of the Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathan Haidt. If a good thing happens and a similar bad thing happens, most people remember the bad thing. In fact, it takes something way better to happen to cancel out a run-of-the-mill bad thing.
I think this is why people are preppers and are stockpiling guns and ammo. And, it's why zombie movies are all the rage. America is in a perfect storm for all of it to happen. Why? Because our crazy American worldview mixed with our religious beliefs. It's a dangerous combination when the future doesn't look real bright anyway, but now you think it is inevitable that we are in the End Times.
Throw in a federal government that can't stop printing money, a large number of blockbuster movies about The End, the guy standing at the front of the church telling you it was foreordained, and mix it with America, which isn't hinged real well to begin with, and what do you get? The crazies that we are.
I don't think we are going to find the answer to our problems in a pill. It's consumed us. We take 3/4ths of the world's pills here in America. How well has it worked for us?
ALL HOPE IS LOST. :)
I see the world totally different after reading this book, though: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt
Life is what *you* make it.
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
A PBS series described it like this:
For bad things, it's like your brain and bad things have Velcro on each other, and everything bad thrown at the brain sticks. And for good things, it is like our brains are coated in Teflon; everything good thrown at it slides right off.
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
Nothing wrong with being a "prepper",that just means being prepared for disasters. Look what happens each and every time there is a power outage or big storm, people mob stores looking for bottled water, ice, flashlights and batteries, etc. Sometimes people in that situation get a little rude and rough with each other too 8D
Happened in my town a month ago, but I wasn't at the store with the mob scene, I was home relaxing because I already had stocked up for *nothing in particular*, but I grew up in an area that flooded every couple years and power was out. You'll notice even the federal govenment a couple years back started a campaign to tell people to at least be prepared for three days of no water, no grocery stores, no power, etc.
It's not foolish to be a "prepper", shit happens. Be a prepper, stock up on some bottled water, dry food / canned goods (and can opener, the preppers most important tool!), first aid kit, camping stove, kerosene heater or wood for the fireplace. The once in a while use and rotate the perishables.
Couldn't hurt and might help.....
A realist most certainly can be a solipsist, he just has to believe that he is the only thing that is real. And what could be a more natural belief for a solipsist than that?
Finally! Some (ag)news we can kick around!
A pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist.
so there IS a fundamental ethical-phlogiston embedded into the universe. the genes have a direct link to this "field" of good and bad ...
Anybody knows if this is a location tested by 23andme (or Ancestry)? I've got results from several providers and I'd be curious to see my results, as I'm a fairly negative person.
My sense is that the best things to have are water and food.
I figure if I can make fresh water, the food situation will solve itself as after about a month as the people who can't get fresh water will die off or become noncompetitive with illness.
The consequences of a missed positive opportunity are far less harmful than those of a negative one. I can afford to miss the occasional babe who smiles at me as a come-on. The crazy jealous boyfriend standing behind her carrying the Bowie knife I notice.
Have gnu, will travel.
It's the reality gene.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Is there a pill for that?
Get your dogma outta my yard!
Sorry but too many of these statistical studies are being presented to the public as "SCIENCE" but the old saw about causation and correlation applies: Do these quasi-scientists (they might have science degrees but they seem to belong in the accounting department) understand exactly how genes work and how cells process genes? Obviously not (else they would be capable of creating "designer" life forms). If you do not absolutely know how genes do what they do and how cells do everything they do, then you do not understand the mechanisms. Not understanding the mechanisms means you do not actually know what the latest magical gene at the center of your latest published paper does (or does not) - so you are actually only announcing that you *think* this particular thing causes some particular thing that seems to statistically correlate. This is going to be like the "lazy gene", the "fat gene", the "gay gene", the "shy gene" etc. Which is to say that certain political activist groups will grab onto it as justification for/against some group/policy, and some government/academic institutions will shovel some research money into it (as the paper's authors are no-doubt hoping) and within a couple of months nobody will remember it (the money will have been handed-out of course.....) Five years from now, nobody will remember it and it will have contributed nothing of value to the store of human knowledge (but it will still be there as residue on the internet to be mined by future bloggers who need scraps of "evidence" for their positions on this or that argument over this or that largely-unrelated political fight)
We have been giving out too many degrees, too easily, to too many sloppy people who's other agendas are bigger than their academic ethics.
The downside is... Hmmm, I guess I don't have it.
There, SOMEONE had to say it!
This so called gene variant directly relates to the metabolic system, specifically the Cytochrome P450 system, so the negativity is transitory due to the inability to metabolize xenobiotic substances in a timely manner, this is what triggers the negativity, and if the offending "triggers" are removed, eventually the xenobiotic substances will metabolize and the negativity goes away.
These finding will come to no good end.
I'm sure you do things "just in case". As the EBT glitch shows our access to food can be interrupted. Or it could be a windstorm or flood. A months stockpile of food is prudent. I hope I never need any of the 2000 rounds of 9mm and .30 cal I have. I m 61 years old. I have found out if you are ready for trouble, it rarely happens.
I suppose this won't be known as Eeyore's Syndrome. Never mind, it doesn't matter anyway. Nobody cares.
And how many /. commenters did they have to test before concluding this?
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
"Depression is a mental disorder caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain"
No, that's an explanation made up by pharmaceutical companies to sell £tens of billions of ineffective drugs to the most vulnerable people in society.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8138893.stm
Not quite. Negative things can stick around whether we want them to or not. There's no such rule for positive things.
I will be explaining why in a book.