Do Others' Mistakes Make Us Feel Good?
Every night since March 1929 a red beacon on top of the historic Grant Building in
Pittsburgh has flashed the city's name in international Morse code. However, while waiting to see 2009's July 4th fireworks, Tom Stapleton, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, noticed the beacon was flashing "Pitetsbkrrh". According to Stapleton, the electrical contacts that create the beacon's flash could have tarnished or moved out of place. When Stapleton returned 4 days later, the beacon was flashing "Tpebtsaurgh". Although the device was sent for repair, the beacon had been successfully flashing "mistake".Another unusual mistake occurred in 1955 when Mary, a 400-pound tortoise, arrived at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. During a routine exam almost 55 years later, zookeepers discovered Mary was actually Terry. It seems it's difficult to establish the sex of a giant Aldabra tortoise because the reproductive organs usually aren't visible. Mary's maleness, however, was suddenly obvious. The-now-Terry had been thought to be female because of having a flatter shell, a shorter tail and an overall smaller size than most male tortoises. Terry, who's estimated to be between 75 and 100 years old, is obviously in touch with his feminine side.
A mistake made by Visa resulted in a small number of Visa cardholders being surprised by purchases costing much more than they had expected. In New Hampshire John Muszynski swiped his debit card and paid $23,148,855, 308,184,500 for a pack of cigarettes. In North Texas John Seale paid the same amount for a dinner at one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants - plus he was charged a $15 overdraft fee. According to a company spokesperson, "A temporary programming error at Visa Debit Processing Services caused some transactions to be inaccurately posted to a small number of Visa prepaid accounts". That's corporate speak for mistake.
Although many people enjoy reading about others' mistakes, a lie isn't a mistake. Police are often taught that communication is 60%-90% non-verbal, but researchers at National University and Southern Connecticut State University found that people who are making up stories make the stories simple so they'll be easily remembered. People telling the truth recall unrelated details and often make mistakes. In fact, truth-tellers tend to add about 30% more detail when relating events than liars. Asking someone to report every detail of an event, starting with what happened last and working backwards, can be a way to get to the truth.
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