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Sin Eaters performed a ceremony wherein they took on the sins that the deceased performed — sins that went unforgiven or without confession prior to death. People typically hired a Sin Eater in situations where the deceased died unexpectedly.
By consuming bread and a drink (usually wine or beer) placed on, or ritually waved over, the dead body, onlookers believed the dead person’s sins were digested by the eater after he or she consumed this beggar’s feast. The act appears to be confined to 18th and 19th Century Europe, with no accounts of necro-cannibalism noted.
In time, the practice expanded in popularity, so that Sin Eaters also attended to people who had just died of natural causes — because people believed the ritual could help prevent the dead from wandering the countryside after death. -Keith Veronese -Keith Veronese
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story or poem with a sin eater as a protagonist.
Journaling Prompt: Write about the oldest tradition your family still practices.
Art Prompt: Sin Eater
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Research a strange custom and tell your audience about it.
Photo Credit: Mikamatto on Flickr
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People seeking shelter during tornadoes and cyclones are often called back, or delayed, by people doing normal activities, who refuse to believe the emergency is happening. These people are displaying what’s known as normalcy bias. About 70% of people in a disaster do it. Although movies show crowds screaming and panicking, most people move dazedly through normal activities in a crisis. This can be a good thing; researchers find that people who are in this state are docile and can be directed without chaos. They even tend to quiet and calm the 10-15% of people who freak out.
The downside of the bias is the fact that they tend to retard the progress of the 10-15% of people who act appropriately. The main source of delay masquerades as the need to get more data. Scientists call this “milling.” People will usually get about four opinions on what’s going on and what they should do before taking any action — even in an obvious crisis. People in emergency situations report calling out to others, asking, “What’s going on?” When someone tells them to evacuate, or to take shelter, they fail to comply and move on, asking other people the same question. -Esther Inglis-Arkell
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story using normalcy bias to create conflict.
Journaling Prompt: When do you tend to deny danger, whether it’s a tornado or something more abstract, like overdue bills? How do you act?
Art Prompt: Normalcy Bias
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Inform your audience about normalcy bias and how it reveals information about our ability to deny what is in front of us. Give your audience strategies to break through denial.
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Teenage girls were a strange breed of animal, prone to strange trends and behaviors. – Bradley Convissar, Blink
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem that features the exotic creature known as the teenage girl.
Journaling Prompt: What is the strangest trend you have seen in teenage girls, whether in this generation or your own generation.
Art Prompt: Teenage Girls
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write a humorous piece about teenage girls and their strange trends and behaviors.
Photo Credit: Pink Sherbet Photography on Flickr
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Do we lose our sense of moral responsibility in a crowd? This condition is called “the diffusion of responsibility” in social science, or “the bystander effect.” The idea is that you would help a stranger if you were alone, but you are less inclined to be a good samaritan when part of a crowd. -Daniel Honan
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story or scene utilizing the bystander effect.
Journaling Prompt: Would you help a stranger if you were in a crowd of people? Why or why not?
Art Prompt: Bystander Effect
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the bystander effect and give your audience information about how they can choose to be different.
Photo Credit: ..c.m… on Flickr
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…the greatest unspoken rule of bus travel is that if other seats are available you shouldn’t sit next to someone else. As the passengers claimed, “It makes you look weird.” When all the rows are filled and more passengers are getting aboard the seated passengers initiate a performance to strategically avoid anyone sitting next to them…
Kim found that this nonsocial behavior is also driven by safety concerns, especially for coach travel which is perceived to be dangerous with ill lit bus stations.
“In a cafe, which is more relaxed, people often ask strangers to watch their stuff for a moment,” said Kim. “Yet at bus stations that rarely happens as people assume their fellow passengers will be tired and stressed out.”
“Ultimately this nonsocial behavior is due to the many frustrations of sharing a small public space together for a lengthy amount of time,” concluded Kim. “Yet this deliberate disengagement is a calculated social action, which is part of a wider culture of social isolation in public spaces.” -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: prompt here
Journaling Prompt: prompt here
Art Prompt: prompt here
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: prompt here
Photo Credit: epSos.de on Flickr
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Kortovsky gave himself a final once-over in the elevator mirror before he reached the hotel lobby. -Gerald Elias, Death and the Maiden
Fiction Writing Prompt: Use the first line of the week as the starting point or inspiration for a scene, story, poem, or haiku.
Journaling Prompt: How concerned are you about your appearance?
Art Prompt: First impressions
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: First impressions
Photo Credit: roland on Flickr
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Prof. Aquino explains that it’s natural for people to wonder how others view them, especially when social acceptance in the workplace is often rewarded with power and financial compensation.
“However, our research shows employees should do their best to keep their interactions positive and ignore the negative. As the expression goes, kill them with kindness.”
In one of the study’s experiments, the researchers discovered that people who more readily interpret interactions with others as negative are also more likely to try to root it out through such means such as eavesdropping or spying. -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story about a character who kills them with kindness.
Journaling Prompt: How do you react to negativity in the workplace?
Art Prompt: Kill Them with Kindness
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about strategies for dealing with negativity in the workplace.
Photo Credit: Free for Commercial Use on Flickr
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… because society trains us not to hurt others’ feelings, we rarely hear the truth about ourselves — even when it’s well deserved. And that can be a problem for overly self-confident people who carry around inaccurate, overly positive perceptions of how others view them…
There are many times when overconfidence carries serious consequences.
“Overconfident doctors and lawyers might offer their patients or clients poor advice,” she said. “There are ways in which overconfidence is dangerous, and it might be important to set aside politeness in the service of helping people avoid the perils of overconfidence.” -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a scene where an overconfident character provides dangerous advice.
Journaling Prompt: Write about someone you know who is overconfident.
Art Prompt: Fear of Speaking Up
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Find a true example of dangerous overconfidence and weave it into an informative piece about lack of truthful feedback.
Photo Credit: Pegabovine on Flickr
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Be careful whom you help, Sara. They never forgive you for it. – Consuelo Saah Baehr, Best Friends
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a scene inspired by this line.
Journaling Prompt: Write about an experience you had when someone you helped got angry with you for it.
Art Prompt: Ingratitude
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the paradox of people being angry for receiving help.
Photo Credit: La Chance0925 on Flickr
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If a server brings you a check and does not include a candy on the check tray, you will tip the server whatever it is that you feel the server deserves. “But if there’s a mint on the tray, tips go up 3.3 percent,” Cialdini says.
According to Cialdini, the researchers who did that study also discovered that if while delivering the tray with the mint the server paused, looked the customers in the eye, and then gave them a second mint while telling them the candy was specifically for them, “tips went through the roof.”
Servers who gave a second mint got a 20 percent increase over their normal tip. -Alix Spiegel
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a scene where a character uses the Rule of Reciprocation to manipulate another person.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a situation where the Rule of Reciprocation made you feel uncomfortable.
Art Prompt: Rule of Reciprocation
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Inform your audience about how the Rule of Reciprocation works and how they can avoid being manipulated by it in high pressure situations.
Photo Credit: The Consumerist on Flickr
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