Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Situational Attribution


I've finally figured it out! For years this has bothered me.

For some reason, whenever my wife has a girls weekend with her friends from college, she tends to imbibe more than when the two of us meet up with friends and hang out. I'm not saying she's a drunken mess when she's not around me, just that she's a little more indulgent.

Fellow married men, you may have experienced much the same. If you're like me and wondering why this happens, here's your answer: situational attribution.

The best example of this psychological concept is the notorious Stanford Prison Experiment. Here's the skinny. 24 undergrads were selected to participate as either guards or convicts. Over the course of just six days, they resided in a mock prison. The test subjects were chosen for their lack of psychological issues, history of crime, etc. And the results were...shocking to say the least. I won't ruin it for you. Check out the wiki article if you get a minute.

But back to my wife. It's probably not so much situational attribution in our case. It probably has more to do with my quest to destroy my liver and her attempts to balance our social act with reasonable moderation.

Love you, dear. I'll make sure to sleep on the couch tonight.

4 comments:

Phil Stiefel said...

My wife is completely different.. She seems to only get herself more intoxicated when I am around.... maybe its a saftey issue with her where she feels safer that I am there to take care of her or make sure she doesnt do anything stupid.
p.s. poor Amy Michelson hope she gets better

Brian O'Rourke said...

Oh Jesus that's terrible for Amy. What a shame. I hope everything turns out alright.

Phil Stiefel said...

Man I am as bad as Buzz Killington on the way I ruined your blog here with some depressing news... my bad

Brian O'Rourke said...

Philly,

This blog was ruined long before you left this comment.

But seriously, it was nice to see the outpouring of well-wishes for Amy Mick from the other tour pros. Pretty cool stuff. I think that's one of the things that separates golf from other sports: most of the guys out there are genuinely nice.