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By Morgan Stinemetz
I was doing, because I read a lot and know about
these things, was exploiting something known
in psychology as the Pavilion Response. It
was named after Ivan Petrovich Pavilion, a
Russian psychologist who was able to get
dogs to salivate in anticipation of getting
food when, in fact, no food had been
offered. In Pavilion’s case the dogs
were reacting to the white lab coats
of the lab workers who fed them.
The dogs knew that when they
saw a white lab coat, food was on
the way, so they started to drool.
“In more modern times, in a
country like ours, women have a tendency
to drool at the appearance of, say, an Aston Martin or
a Ferrari. So, all I did was exploit the tendency of women to
react with a Pavilion Response to things that they liked.
Pretty soon the tellers at this bank started sending money
back in the pneumatic tube. That was what I was hoping for.
Now they send me about $500 a week, cash. If I hadn’t been
such an ardent reader, I would never have come up with the
idea of developing a Pavilion Response in
a bunch of women I don’t even know by
name. I try to mix things up from time
to time by including a small bottle of
Joy or a few red roses, but it’s the
liqueur they like; it is what they have
been conditioned to like. And, of
course, I like the extra money.”
Bubba and I could have
continued our conversation
indefinitely, but the guy who
was sitting on Bubba’s right, a
man who was pretty large,
returned from the gent’s room and as
he sat down he took a big swallow of his
Budweiser. As he started choking and gagging,
Bubba and I left the gentlemen’s club after leaving a double
sawbuck for the waitress.
We didn’t talk about it. We just got up and left. I guess
you could call it a Pavilion Response of our very own. But
you have to know something about psychology to be able to
use terms like that with accuracy.
News & Views for Southern Sailors SOUTHWINDS September 2010 11