Scientific American Mind-June/July 2007
Scientific American Mind-June/July 2007
Scientific American Mind-June/July 2007
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MIND<br />
THOUGHT IDEAS BRAIN SCIENCE<br />
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(letters) february/march <strong>2007</strong> issue<br />
BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO<br />
I am a psychologist who used two<br />
online dating services and found nearly<br />
every fl aw depicted in the article<br />
“The Truth about Online Dating,” by<br />
Robert Epstein. I was especially put<br />
off by the assertion by one company<br />
that I was “not compatible” with certain<br />
ladies I wanted to meet and yet<br />
“compatible” with others who had one<br />
of the limiting characteristics I had<br />
listed at the company’s suggestion.<br />
But the real problem arose when I<br />
tried to terminate my membership. I<br />
called and indicated my wishes, was<br />
given a confirmation number, and<br />
then my credit card was charged for<br />
the next two months. I notifi ed my<br />
bank, but it refused to refund the<br />
money, saying I had given the company<br />
my number so the matter was<br />
between that business and me. Obviously,<br />
this was not the sort of longterm<br />
relationship I was looking for, so<br />
I canceled the card along with the dating<br />
“service.”<br />
Larry Hourany<br />
McKinleyville, Calif.<br />
UNHAPPY ABOUT “HAPPY”<br />
I wonder if Michael Wiederman, who<br />
wrote “Why It’s So Hard to be Happy,”<br />
could bring himself to tell a poor person<br />
that economic disadvantage is not<br />
really the cause of unhappiness but<br />
rather—on the authority of “evolutionary<br />
psychologists”—that discontentment<br />
is rooted in genetic adaptations<br />
in the distant past? These days social<br />
variables right under a researcher’s<br />
nose, such as wealth and race, can respectably<br />
be ignored in favor of speculative<br />
inferences about prehistory. This<br />
article’s equation of happiness with<br />
personal chemistry is a message mainly<br />
useful to the white middle class.<br />
Anne C. Rose<br />
via e-mail<br />
WIEDERMAN REPLIES: Certainly experiences<br />
and environment are important<br />
infl uences on happiness to the extent<br />
that they interact with the cognitive<br />
software that makes us human. So abject<br />
poverty is related to unhappiness,<br />
as is social comparison whereby we<br />
“feel poor” relative to others around us.<br />
The point made by the research on happiness<br />
and economic status is that once<br />
our basic needs are met, having “more”<br />
of anything does not result in lasting increases<br />
to happiness. I see that as a<br />
positive message for the large majority<br />
of us who will never be among the<br />
wealthiest but who might delude ourselves<br />
into thinking that we would be<br />
happier if we were.<br />
EYEBALLS AND ODDBALLS<br />
“The Case of the Loud Eyeballs,”<br />
by R. Douglas Fields [Perspectives],<br />
greatly interested me because I have<br />
occasionally had an experience related<br />
to the screeching sounds his eyeballs<br />
make when he is half-asleep.<br />
I am lying in bed and have just<br />
woken up. I notice something strange:<br />
my tinnitus is gone! Wow, I think, this<br />
is wonderful. I am so happy to discover<br />
what silence is really like. But<br />
oddly, there are also no birds chirping<br />
away outside. Two seconds later:<br />
RRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG.<br />
My tinnitus is back, like a switch was<br />
turned on. And I hear birds chirping.<br />
Mark Mojkowski<br />
via e-mail<br />
Your article made me smile because<br />
I, too, can hear my eyeballs. For me,<br />
4 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND <strong>June</strong>/<strong>July</strong> <strong>2007</strong><br />
COPYRIGHT <strong>2007</strong> SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.