Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

  Sculpture at Terazin  2024 “Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It.” George Santayana ***** A great quantity of information in the form of text, photographs, statues, films, drawings, and paintings portray and honour the lives of those who were victims of the Nazi’s murderous plan. The concentration camps do concentrate one’s focus on a particular era of terror. The evidence from the past 80 years suggests Santayana was right and wrong. In a sense, his statement was too general to be contradicted. For example, the specific conditions that generated and maintained the Nazi system of mass murder are unlikely to be replicated; however, some timeless characteristics of human nature persist. ***** I’m a psychologist and not a historian yet, I come away from recent visits to several Nazi terror sites with some impressions. 1. Religion supports dictators. Horrible leaders often have an amiable relationship with the larger religious groups who fail to dissuade th...

Park Closed 2023 Geoffrey W. Sutton & Bing AI   It's September 29th and the US is about to shutdown again- -that is, the government closes nonessential operations. Of course, what's "essential" isn't decided by us--the citizens of this great nation. Surely, there is a more effective way to avoid this recurring event and the horrific costs to our financial and wellbeing. I do think our government wastes too much of our money, but shutdowns are not the best way to get change. Every election makes a difference. When we elect big spenders, we pay the price. Sometimes, we may decide some spending is a good idea--depends on our politics. The Cost of A Shutdown - It's Not Just Financial Were you planning a trip to a National Park? They shutdown. The parks will close. You lose planned enjoyment. Some parks are open and some with minimal services. It will require some investigation to know what's available and what is closed. Were you going to fly somewhere? L...

 You can message leaders the truth, but you can't make them believe it. Previously: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. A 360 video is worth 10 pictures. Previously: A picture is worth a thousand words. ...at least in real estate... Actions are weaker than repeated phrases no matter how false. Previously - actions speak louder than words. Yet, I see the power of repeated statements replacing actions. A reframing of the man and the fish: "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." A person lacking self-control is like a house broken into and left with open doors. Previously: He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls. You can't judge a tablet by its case. Previously: You can't judge a book by its cover. Please check out my website     www.suttong.com    and see my books on    AMAZON      ...

Ambitious professionals often wait to learn if what they have accomplished will be enough to move one step forward in their career path. Would-be university professors are no exception. I survived the Ph.D. hazing activities (dissertation/ defence/ oral exams), which allowed me to enter employment as a psychologist. When I learned how little my advisor earned compared to my starting salary, I did not pursue an academic career and turned down an early offer from a small college. Eventually, after a professional career, I decided to leave fulltime work as a clinician to enter academia. I have thus been a participant-observer in a very different environment than the world of the self-employed. I had to learn to wait on others who sometimes moved at a snail's pace. I often wondered if the slowness was the reason for universities' " nonprofit " status. I couldn't imagine making patients or consultees waiting for answers or decisions as happens in academia. I used to th...

At this point, the research supports the value of wearing a face mask plus taking other precautions like eye protection, physical distancing, and hand hygiene. Masks alone are not enough.  Meta-analysis Study published in    The Lancet June 27 2020    What they did: The research team examined virus transmission among people on six continents. Here's a quote from the article: We did a systematic review of 172 observational studies in health-care and non-health-care settings across 16 countries and six continents; 44 comparative studies were included in a meta-analysis, including 25 697 patients with COVID-19, SARS, or MERS.    Conclusions so far: The risk for infection is highly dependent on distance to the individual infected and the type of face mask and eye protection worn. From a policy and public health perspective, current policies of at least 1 m physical distancing seem to be strongly associated with a large protective effect, and distances of 2...

On Remembrance Sunday, I shared a post about Queen Elizabeth II being the only living Commander in Chief who served in World War II. As a young woman she served in a way that women were welcomed in uniform in those days. What amazed me is the number of people who gave my post a like or "love" in a short period of time. At one point, the post got a positive click about every minute, which is much higher than my usual posts. Of course, the group was composed of people of British origin. Still, the question may be asked why is she so popular? And, is there anything leaders may learn from such high levels of public support? Oh, by the way, Queen Elizabeth II and her family are of great interest to many Americans as well so, it's not just the British. Princess Elizabeth WW II service The Queen's popularity ratings run above 80% in various surveys. That's high for a national leader. Most leaders won't be kings or queens or even presidents ...

Originally published 10 July 2015 Today, July 10, marks the 75th anniversary of the  Battle of Britain . German Luftwaffe attempted to destroy the British Royal Air Force (RAF) before invading Britain in 1940.  Timeline . The failure was a turning point in the war. Many have analysed the event in terms of German air superiority-planes, pilots and experience. There are mentions of British radar as helpful. I take a look at psychological factors. COUNTING ERRORS People make mistakes. Germans underestimated the number of British planes. The British overestimated the number of German planes. It’s always better to underestimate an enemy. MOTIVATION Defending your family, friends, and homeland is much more motivating than risking your life to attack an enemy-especially one you expect to defeat later in the year. EMOTION trumped cognitive strategy By all accounts Hitler was angry over British  counterattacks on German towns . He began pummeling Lo...

On the Psychology of Politics “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” The forgoing quote is from John Ehrlichman in 1994. Dan Baum includes it in his April 2016  Harper's   article: "Legalize It All: How to win the war on drugs." I came across the piec...