Physiognomy and voter preference - Page 4 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

BENZ-LGB · #46 03-02-2007, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Botnst

maybe you read it in ...

(wait for it, it's gonna be good!)

... a maga-zen!

Come Carlos, you have got to admit it, this is funny stuff.

Bot, you wicked punster!

cmac2012 · #47 03-02-2007, 04:55 PM

Oh it is funny all right. I think puns have been given a bad rap, the lowest form of humor thing. Puns can be pretty good. The lowest form of humor is actually flippancy, IMHO.

OK, let’s recap:

Kleiner (in the OP) presented a lot of good info on the how and why of people reading faces. He balanced it off at the end with:

“Studies show that people think they can read all sorts of things about people based on their faces, including intelligence, basic character and personality traits. Unfortunately, the same studies show that we're not as accurate as we think we are.

Like everyone else, I know that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover. And like everyone else, I do it all the time – summing someone up in the street, or at a party, or on the subway, based largely on what I think I see in his face. I'm usually pretty confident I'm right, but I'm also probably wrong.

Misjudging someone at a party based on his face is one thing. Misjudging the leader of a country for the same reason is another, much more serious thing. Faces and gut feelings are no way to choose a leader.”

Judging a book by its cover – style of dress, attractiveness of face – clearly has limitations. But his saying that gut feelings are no way to choose a leader is too broad and sweeping a statement. Certainly other factors are important.

But as I’ve said before, people can lie with words much easier than with body and facial language, especially with the massive spin/propo departments now up and running.

The piece that A2 presented was illuminating:

Quote:

Originally Posted by A264172

The tests have been given to policemen, customs officers, judges, trial lawyers, and psychotherapists, as well as to officers from the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the D.E.A., and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms-- people one would have thought would be good at spotting lies. On average, they score fifty per cent, which is to say that they would have done just as well if they hadn't watched the tapes at all and just guessed. But every now and again-- roughly one time in a thousand--someone scores off the charts. A Texas Ranger named David Maxwell did extremely well, for example, as did an ex-A.T.F. agent named J.J. Newberry, a few therapists, an arbitrator, a vice cop-- and John Yarbrough, which suggests that what happened in Willowbrook may have been more than a fluke or a lucky guess. Something in our faces signals whether we're going to shoot, say, or whether we're lying about the film we just saw. Most of us aren't very good at spotting it. But a handful of people are virtuosos. What do they see that we miss?"

What’s this? Some people are better at this than others? Has this ever happened before? Does the American academy of sciences know about this?!?

News flash: natural variation in skill level observed!

I mean, don't get me wrong, it was a really good piece and indicates that this "artform" is possible.

I stumbled into this snake pit by asserting that I had seen Cheney on TV years ago and didn’t trust him, on an instinctual level. Struck me as an ambitious man who would let nothing stand between him and power.

And with “W,” I sensed an over-confident bluster, a cocky belief that he had been chosen by God to make the hard choices others avoided.

Oh cruel fate, how could I have been so wrong?!?

BENZ-LGB · #48 03-02-2007, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmac2012

Oh it is funny all right. I think puns have been given a bad rap, the lowest form of humor thing. Puns can be pretty good. The lowest form of humor is actually flippancy, IMHO.

I think sarcasm is the lowest form of humor, and not punstery (sp???).

Man, get a six pack of cold (your favorite brew) kick back and relax.

It is a gorgeous day (at least here in So. Calif.).