TMD Update: “America’s Fentanyl Crisis”
By Declan Garvey and Heather Eaton
MG: It’s ancient folk wisdom that one rotting apple can ruin the entire apple larder. Older generations knew it was important to remove the source of corruption before it ruined the rest.
In a chapter of their book “The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It,” Roy Baumeister (socio-psych. researcher) and John Tierney (science journo) describe how one worker with a bad attitude can cause an office to lose productivity measurably. A team that might have functioned relatively well can be brought to a standstill or even become hostile and contentious with no more than the addition of a bad new colleague.
There’s a nice summary of similar research here, referring to a 2009 episode of the radio show “This American Life.” Some of the research undoubtedly informed “The Power of Bad” (which I don’t have at hand). Per the link, when researchers planted a bad-apple actor in a work team with a task, things went like this:
Even worse, other team members began to take on the bad apple's characteristics. When the bad apple was a jerk, other team members would begin acting like a jerk. When he was a slacker, they began to slack, too. And they wouldn't act this way just in response to the bad apple. They'd act this way to each other, in sort of a spillover effect. What they found, in short, is that the worst team member is the best predictor of how any team performs.
This might provide a clue as to what to watch out for when trying to keep a comment section from failing. Helpfully, at the end of the link, the author says that diplomatic skills can help defuse potential behavioral bombs.
I just discovered a cool compound German word, even if it's a day late for Halloween. (I found it in a story on the website of the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung, which requires Google Translate for me to understand, but has much more Ukraine coverage than we get over here. The stories are paywalled, but I can get the gist from the headlines.)
𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗴𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝘁 = bogeyman or specter or nightmare
schreck = fright
gespenst = spook
Thanks, Marque! I know you’re trying to keep us going, and it’s very much appreciated. ❤️