Story

What do elderly people need?

What do elderly people need?

Elderly residents of a nursing home were given a house plant. Half of the residents (A) were told that they were in control of plant's feeding and care. The other half (B) were informed that a staff person would take care of the plant.
A follow up study, introduced volunteer students' visit to the elderly people. In one group (A), the patient had control over the students' visit. They could decide the time and day of visit. The other group (B) had no such control and students visited as per their convenience.
Which group of elderly people will be happier and why?
Photo Adaptation https://pixabay.com/users/onzecreativitijd-594000/
Share on

Your Comments

1 Comment

Twinkar
Twinkar
no matter how old one gets it always feels best when one is needed around and not neglected. In other words group A would be more happier than the other as it has more control and is needed for the plant's care. Also, the volunteer student can be called upon whenever and hence cater to their needs

Similar Stories


The mistakes we make in our everyday life

• We are hardwired to make these mistakes • Few biases are simply evolutionary • These errors affect all of us including the bright ones • Experience is just not enough to overcome • but expertise is required to recognize and overcome

Few of biases as below · Anchoring - When an individual depends too heavily on an initial piece of information during decision making · Fixed pie - When we assume that our interests conflict with the other party's interests and we play adversarial · Framing - When we decide on our options differently when the options are presented with positive or negative connotations · Vividness – When we pay attention to strong features at the expense of less, that could be more impactful · Over confidence – When our subjective confidence is greater than the objective accuracy · Escalation – When initial decision is followed up with an irrational decision to justify the initial decision

Few ways to mitigate these biases are · Learn to recognize the bias · Use slow, effortful and logical thinking (System 2) · Avoid fast, automatic and effortless thinking (System 1) · Avoid negotiations which are thrust upon when not ready · Learn through use of stories, examples, exercises · Bring an outsider perspective