Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the WorstUniversity of Chicago Press, 15. sep. 2008 - 336 sider People—especially Americans—are by and large optimists. They're much better at imagining best-case scenarios (I could win the lottery!) than worst-case scenarios (A hurricane could destroy my neighborhood!). This is true not just of their approach to imagining the future, but of their memories as well: people are better able to describe the best moments of their lives than they are the worst. “In Never Saw It Coming, Karen Cerulo argues that in American society there is a ‘positive symmetry,’ a tendency to focus on and exaggerate the best, the winner, the most optimistic outcome and outlook. Thus, the conceptions of the worst are underdeveloped and elided. Naturally, as she masterfully outlines, there are dramatic consequences to this characterological inability to imagine and prepare for the worst, as the failure to heed memos leading up to both the 9/11 and NASA Challenger disasters, for instance, so painfully reminded us.”--Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Swarthmore College “Katrina, 9/11, and the War in Iraq—all demonstrate the costliness of failing to anticipate worst-case scenarios. Never Saw It Coming explains why it is so hard to do so: adaptive behavior hard-wired into human cognition is complemented and reinforced by cultural practices, which are in turn institutionalized in the rules and structures of formal organizations. But Karen Cerulo doesn’t just diagnose the problem; she uses case studies of settings in which people effectively anticipate and deal with potential disaster to describe structural solutions to the chronic dilemmas she describes so well. Never Saw It Coming is a powerful contribution to the emerging fields of cognitive and moral sociology.”--Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University |
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... asymmetry. Yet I would argue, they are not the primary triggers of the phenomenon. For while emotions are ... negative affects emerge. If we wish to unpack the role of emotions in the positive-asymmetry phenomenon (indeed, an important ...
... negative asymmetry ” —chapter 6 visits two well - known prototypes of the behavior . Medical practitioners and computer technicians represent two communities that vigorously reverse dominant evaluative routines . Taking these ...
... negative asymmetry dominated problem- solving efforts ; in the two failures , positive asymmetry ruled the day . How did negative asymmetry break through in the case of SARS and Y2K ? And what role did emancipating structures play in ...
... negative effect that “ troubled ” peers can have on a child , yet only 45 percent feel this issue is at all relevant to their child . Similarly , 73 percent worry about the negative impact of the media on young people in general , yet ...
... asymmetry, the findings showed that 60 percent of Americans expect to live past the age of eighty, enjoying life ... negative events that have a 100 percent proba- bility of occurrence. Yet, despite the certainty of death, statistics ...
Indhold
1 | |
17 | |
3 Practicing Positive Asymmetry | 72 |
4 Positive Asymmetry and the Subjective Side of Scientific Measurement | 122 |
5 Being Labeled the Worst Real in Its Consequences? | 139 |
6 Exceptions to the Rule | 164 |
7 Emancipating Structures and Cognitive Styles | 193 |
8 Can Symmetrical Vision Be Achieved? | 233 |
Acknowledgments | 344 |
1 Whats the Worst That Could Happen? | 1 |
2 The Breadth and Scope of Positive Asymmetry | 17 |
3 Practicing Positive Asymmetry | 72 |
4 Positive Asymmetry and the Subjective Side of Scientific Measurement | 122 |
5 Being Labeled the Worst Real in Its Consequences? | 139 |
6 Exceptions to the Rule | 164 |
7 Emancipating Structures and Cognitive Styles | 193 |
Notes | 245 |
References | 279 |
Index | 315 |
Contents | 342 |
8 Can Symmetrical Vision Be Achieved? | 233 |
Notes | 245 |
References | 279 |
Index | 315 |
Andre udgaver - Se alle
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Begrænset visning - 2008 |
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Ingen forhåndsvisning - 2006 |
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Ingen forhåndsvisning - 2006 |