Horror Stories What’s the Catch

For as long as narration in any form existed, horror stories of this or that kind have been extremely popular. They are not limited to literature: people told each other scary stories beside campfires long before there was such thing as literature and, for that matter, writing. And the situation didn’t change much in the millennia since then – the media may have changed, today we are being frightened by much more sophisticated methods, including text, audio, video, interactive experiences and so on, but the core remains the same – people simply like being scared. At least until something really threatens them. Why Do We Like to Be Afraid? Howard Philip Lovecraft, one of the best-known masters of horror fiction, in his essay on the history of the genre says that fear is one of the oldest and the strongest human emotions, and the strongest and the oldest fear is the fear of the unknown. This is, to put it briefly, what it’s all about. Horror fiction makes use of fears we all keep somewhere in our subconscious: fear of the dark, fear of inexplicable, fear of what we cannot understand or perceive. We may say that we possess completely scientific approach to life and believe only in things that can be proved; but deep down there is something in each of us that doesn’t think in categories of reason, proof and logic. Some people manage this primal part of their personality better, some worse, but all of us to this or that degree are influenced by it, no matter if we acknowledge it or not. That is why horror stories – if they are well told – can fascinate even those who don’t like them. They resonate with something hidden deeper than rationality. The world around us is too mundane, too logical, there are too few things left completely unexplained. We know logically that no monsters lurk in the shadows, but somewhere deep inside we still expect them to – or even want those monsters to be real. An Easy Way to Get Your Adrenaline Another reason why horror stories are so popular is that they give us an opportunity to tickle our nerves without actually subjecting ourselves to any real danger. Humankind evolved in conditions in which its representatives were constantly surrounded by innumerable threats: wild beasts, enemy peoples, natural disasters and so on. As the civilization developed, humans understood the world around them better and better and were able to weaken the impact of some of these dangers or to neutralize them altogether. Today we are still afraid of horrible things happening to us, but the nature of these things is generally quite explainable and logical. But the fear of the unknown remains, and to satiate the hunger for it people read horror stories, thus in some way restoring the conditions of the past, at least in their imaginations. So every time you read a horror story you pay homage to this subconscious desire to feel primeval fear once again.

Analysis of Against the Odds and Against the Common Good

The following two paragraphs are a summary of Gloria Jimenezs essay Against the Odds and Against the Common Good. States should neither allow nor encourage state-run lotteries. There are five major arguments that people use to defend lotteries. One is that most lotteries are run honestly, but if gambling is harmful to society it is irrelevant to argue if they are honest or not. The second is that lotteries create jobs, but there are only a small handful of jobs that would be eliminated if lotteries were put out of business. Another argument that would support keeping lotteries is that, other than gambling addicts, people freely choose to buy lottery tickets. This is true, however, there are misleading advertisements that may cause people†¦show more content†¦To support her side of the argument and to answer these counterarguments Jimenez share a few statistics. She tells us that the New York Times reported in 2002, that the state-run lotteries brought in a revenue of $20 bil lion dollars, and that this is only 4% of the states income. She also tells us about one study in a report from the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy that shows people who earned $10,000 a year bought almost three times as many lottery tickets than those who made $50,000 or more a year. This shows us that more poor people buy lotto tickets, so more poor people are paying the taxes that benefit education and social services. In the second to last paragraph, the author uses an analogy that compares state-run lotteries to tobacco products. She says that tobacco is harmful, and the state puts heavy taxes on it. They use the revenue to treat people who have gotten sick from smoking and to persuade people not to smoke. She doesn’t apply this analogy to lotteries but assumes that we will think of how to link this idea to lotteries on our own. Jimenez also makes a few other assumptions in her essay. She doesn’t explain to her readers what a state-run lottery is and s he doesn’t tell us how the process works. It is because of this that I can say that she assumes that her readers will know what a state-run lottery is. She writes that lotteries are harmful,Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Odds And Against The Common Good990 Words   |  4 PagesAnalysis of the odds The lottery in this country is a big past time for Americans. It gives hope to the hopeless and disappointment to a multitude of participants. A quick view of statistical information regarding the lottery shows that out of all people who take part in this country wide phenomenon, each individual person has a 1 in 175,223,510 chance of hitting the jackpot (AmericanStatisticalAssociation.org). The author of â€Å"Against The Odds and Against the Common Good†, argues that theRead MoreAnalysis of Gloria Jimenezs Against All Odds and Against the Common Good1049 Words   |  5 PagesEssay Analysis Gloria Jimà ©nez wrote an essay at Tuffs University in 2003 named, â€Å"Against All Odds and Against the Common Good (Jimà ©nez 116). The purpose of this essay is to persuade and support the following thesis: â€Å"Still, when all is said and done about lotteries bringing a vast amount of money into the lives of many people into the lives of a few, the states should not be in the business of urging people to gamble (Jimà ©nez 116).† The evidenceRead MoreI Know Why The Caged Bird Sings1004 Words   |  5 Pagestheir grandmother Momma, because she was a parental figure to both of them. In her young years Maya struggled with the absence of her parents and that neglect from them. Along with this she struggled with insecurities about her beauty, because the common depiction of beauty around her were white women, and she didn’t look like them. Maya also grew up in a very racist cultured town. She experienced things such as lynching mobs, and seeing cotto n pickers take the field on a daily. Maya is eventuallyRead MorePPARG Case Study1224 Words   |  5 Pagesinclusion criteria: 1) prospective cohort or case control studies, 2) all the studies had a similar purpose of investigating the association of Po12Ala polymorphism with DN, 3) enough information to calculate odds ratio. The studies not providing enough information were excluded from the meta-analysis. Data extraction Genotype data for the target polymorphism was carefully extracted independently by two of the authors. The following data were considered: first author, year of publication, country of studyRead MoreA Study On Sudden Infant Death Syndrome1664 Words   |  7 Pagesdifferent of smoking and non-smoking mothers. And lastly, the results of different smoking habits in the Scandinavian countries were investigated and analysed. The principal objective in this case-control study is to provide a valid and reasonably good estimate answer to the unexplained deaths. In practice, this objective is usually supplemented by several others. A typical objective would be to link the disadvantages of smoking and health risks to the unborn baby and any other dangers smoking couldRead MoreCompare and Contrast paper911 Words   |  4 Pagescultures. An in-depth analysis will give us a thorough explanation of people’s discriminatory attitude. Of how they can be rude to those who do not dance their music. Another thing worth valuing in both the movie and the story is the fact that they depicted the harsh reality of peasantry. The story has the touch of simplicity but the detailed feature of the movie made the subject more colorful. At the outset, it would seem that the story is not far from ordinary against-all-odds type of a love storyRead MoreKirstie Williams. Benson. English 271 Distance Education.1481 Words   |  6 PagesIn this essay, we will analyze Utopia’s role in the common laws, the religious freedoms, and dystopia/utopia similarities throughout More’s literature. I. Introduction A. Imagine you are a sailor, sailing the vast emptiness of the ocean. B. To your dismay, the storm thrashes waves against your boat. C. You find yourself on the island of Thomas More’s Utopia D. Some facts about Thomas More II. Common Law / Commonplace / Customs A. The commons in Thomas More’s Utopia are drastically different fromRead MoreExecutive Summary : Uber Technologies Inc.1299 Words   |  6 Pagesto expand its business in India which is one of the largest markets outside of the United States. The timing of their expansion in India was questioned because the government planned on banning Uber on accounts of criminal conduct and rape charges against one of its drivers. It was also being questioned for its ethics. It is facing an ever growing competition from Olacabs and Mumbai’s Kaali-Peeli taxis. Start-ups are getting acquainted with the business model of the company and are looking to gainRead MoreThe American Dream Is A Good Education1100 Words   |  5 Pagespreparation needed to begin the process of achieving the American dream is through a good education. Going to a good College/University is the first step. There are lots of examples of well educated people individuals achieving significant success and wealth in their lives. It is possible to achieve the American Dream without a proper education, but the odds of that happening are quite low. However, some people beat the odds and achieve the American Dream without finishing their education, Some examplesRead MoreHarper Lee s Novel Of The Same Title896 Words   |  4 Pagesdrama, its characteristics are clear. There is a perspective on life, a sense of humor, political view and moral values established early in the film. The setting is also important to the film, as it draws a theme and structure for the audience. This analysis will view â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† through the lens of the genre theory as it applies to the contextual information, story/plot, aesthetic choices, and social impact that helped form the theme and created an Oscar award winning and nominated film

Cultural Differences in Perception Free Essays

The cultural influence of difference in focus and categorization In the research article, â€Å"The influence of culture: holistic versus analytic perception† provided by Richard E. Nisbett and Yuri Miyamoto, there is evidence that perceptual processes are influenced by culture. The research found that Western cultures focus on salient objects and use rules and categorization for purposes of organizing the environment, whereas, East Asian cultures focus more holistically on relationships and similarities among the objects when organizing the environment. We will write a custom essay sample on Cultural Differences in Perception or any similar topic only for you Order Now In an illustrative study both rural Chinese and American children were shown a picture of a man, a woman, and a baby. The Chinese children tended to group the woman and the baby because of the relationship between the two, a woman takes care of a baby. American children tended to group the man and the woman because they are both adults. The results indicated that culture influences late stages of perception and categorization. In another study East Asians and European Americans were presented with the Rod-and-Frame Test. In this test a rod or line is shown inside a frame, which can be rotated around the rod. The participants were asked to state when the rod appeared vertical even if the position of the frame was in a different position. The East Asian participants made more errors than the European American participants. This indicated that the East Asians were attending more to the whole field which made it difficult to ignore the frame. It was found that East Asians not only attended more to the field, but they noticed it earlier, remembered more about it, and related the object to the field in memory. Additional evidence that Asians pay more attention to context comes from work by Masuda and Nisbett. They presented American and Japanese participants with two animated pictures of a farm. The two pictures had various small differences in details. Some of the changes differed in focal objects and other changes were made in the field and relationships between objects. The findings showed small differences in styles of attending to information in the environment. In conclusion Nisbett and Miyamoto found, â€Å"considerable evidence that shows that Asians are inclined to attend to, perceive and remember contexts and relationships whereas Westerners are more likely to attend to, perceive and remember the attributes of salient objects and their category memberships† (Paragraph 10). Eye-movements during scene perception In the past hundred years, cultural differences in perceptual judgment and memory have been observed. It has been found that Westerners pay more attention to focal object whereas East Asians pay more attention to contextual information. Hannah Faye Chua, Julie E. Boland, and Richard E. Nisbett wrote a research article, â€Å"Cultural variation in eye movement during scene perception† in which they studied such cultural differences. They examined the possibility that the differences came from culturally different viewing patterns when confronted with a nature scene. The authors did so by measuring the eye movements of both American cultured individuals and Chinese cultured individuals while they viewed photographs with a focal object in a complex background. They found that the Americans fixated more on focal objects and the Chinese participants paid more attention to the background. It appeared to Nisbett, Boland, and Chua that the differences in judgment and memory may have come from differences in what is actually attended as people view a picture. In the study performed by Nisbett, Boland, and Chua participants were asked to sit in front of a computer screen with a head-mounted eye-movement tracker. The individual would start the session by looking at a plus sign in the middle of a black screen followed by a scenic picture. The findings from study Easterners and Westerners differ in assigning information to objects versus backgrounds. The East Asians were less likely to correctly recognize old foregrounded objects when presented in new back grounds. Providing more evidence that East Asians appear to bind objects with backgrounds in perception. Therefore the cultural differences in visual memory are likely caused by how people from Eastern and Western cultures view scenes and are not only due to cultural norms. American participants looked at the foregrounded object sooner and longer than the Chinese whereas the Chinese looked more at the background than the Americans did. It is thought that this is due to the fact that East Asians live in relatively complex social networks. Thus, attention to context is important for effective functioning. Westerners, however, live in less constraining social worlds that stress independence which allows them to pay less attention to context. Thought habits in different cultures In the research done by Nisbett and his colleges it is found that individuals not only think about different things but think differently over all. In all the studies it was found that Easterners think more holistically, paying more attention to context and relationship and relying more on experience-based knowledge than abstract logic and showed more tolerance for contradiction. Westerners are more analytic, tending to detach objects from their context to avoid contradiction. They relied heavily on formal logic. The Asian participants in the studies showed greater attention to the background of scenes than the objects in the background whereas the Americans showed greater attention to the objects. When it came to interpreting events in the social world, the Asians seemed similarly sensitive to context more quickly than the Americans did. This can cause different views when perceiving world events. How to cite Cultural Differences in Perception, Essay examples

Intercultural Communication Cross Cultural Communication

Question: Discuss about theIntercultural Communication forCross Cultural Communication. Answer: Introduction Intercultural communication also refers to cross cultural communication in which communication takes place among the individuals that come from diverse cultural and social backgrounds. This describes different problems occurred due to different communication processes within an organization i.e.made up of people belonging to different religious, educational, ethnic and social backgrounds. It facilitates in understanding of the communication skills used by people that belong to different cultures. In this type of communication, culture plays a role in understanding the way in which people encodes, transmit and interpret the messages. Besides language, intercultural communication also gives emphasis on thought patterns, social attributes and cultures of different groups of people (Novinger, 2013). It helps in understanding the customs, culture and language of people from other countries. Emergence of globalization results in the presence of diverse workforce which helps in development of intercultural communication skills in the organization. It is also considered as a basis for international businesses. It is regarded as the situated communication that takes place between different groups belonging to different linguistic and cultural origins. Intercultural communication facilitates in building strong relations among different people by the use of language. This type of communication helps in sharing of the information between different people belonging to different cultures and social groups (Plappert, 2010). There is a requirement of understanding the customs, values, standards, social mores and thought patterns present in different cultures. For the purpose of effective implementation of intercultural communication , there is a requirement of acceptance of differences that are present in the organization. It is a skill that is necessary to be developed among the employees as employees are working in different countries and required to understand the culture of the community and country in which it is working. This helps in understanding the needs and demands of the local people in the country (Kotthoff and Oatey, 2007). Reasons of Choosing Intercultural Communication Intercultural communication helped me in gaining knowledge for the purpose of management of the differences that occur in the culture of different people. It also helped me in the development of a creative mind set to visualize the things from different perspectives. The main reason behind choosing of this subject is that it helped me to develop intercultural communication skills that would result in building strong relationships with the employees as there is an emergence of globalization and changes in the demography of the people working in different countries (Gudykunst, 2005). Besides this, I have also gained knowledge to use creative skills to come up with innovative ways to solve the problems faced by the company. It also helps in building strong relations between people belonging to diverse cultural groups. Besides this, it also helped me to understand the culture to which a person belongs and helps in avoiding the situation of thinking that the culture is superior to other cultures. Besides this, it also helps in understanding the needs of refugees, immigrants and undocumented individuals. It is important for the businesses to understand different cultural practices carried out in other countries for the purpose of competing in the business environment in an effective manner (Gudykunst, 2003). Human beings have a tendency to learn from people who are different from them. This tendency helps me in providing suggestion of the quality of ideas to solve the problems by finding the best approach by combining different cultural processes in provide solution to a problem occurred in the workplace. This topic has varied scope as rapid changes have been taking place in the business environment, it is essential for the businesses to understand different cultures as they expand their business operations in other countries. This results in providing employment to the local people of the country for which there is need to understand the requirements of the local people for the purpose of providing them safe working environment (Scollon, et al. 2012). Application of Intercultural Communication in Career Development Nowadays, emergence of globalization results in providing employment to local people by the company based in other country for the purpose of expanding their business operations. In the multinational company, there is a presence of workers belonging to different culture and countries which results in creation of the problems related to language barriers and understanding of the culture of different people. The intercultural communication helps in understanding the culture of different people as they share their views and opinions with each other by the use of common language. This also help me to provide solutions to the problems faced in the workplace as it facilitates in providing creative ideas to solve different problems associated with culture in the company (Gudykunst and Mody, 2002). It help me to understand my team members belonging to different cultures which facilitates in achieving the goal and objective of the team in an effective and efficient manner. This helps in building strong relations with the employees with whom, the task has to be carried out to attain the common goal of the business. I will gain knowledge regarding the custom, values and beliefs follow under different religious and cultural groups that help me to understand the need of the individual and provide them the suitable work environment in order to achieve high productivity and performance. Training is provided to individuals to understand different cultures in a proper manner in order to build effective intercultural communication skills in the employees (Sorrells, 2015). This also helps in understanding the requirements of the customers in order to provide them customized products in order to achieve high level of customer satisfaction. These skills also helps in handling the customer objections in an effective manner as the knowledge of culture to which a customer belong helps in building and maintaining strong relations with customer. In addition to this, different skills are developed which helps in enhancing my attitude and behavior towards different situations occurred due to presence of culturally diversified employees in the organization (Plappert, 2010). Nowadays, there is a presence of diversity among the employees of the organization as the companies expand their business operations in different countries which requires good communication skills in order to communicate with diverse work groups so that their needs can be met in an effective manner. The presence of intercultural communication skill helps in developing a safe and friendly envi ronment in the organization. This also helps in building and establishing better coordination between different employees in order to complete the given task in a successful manner. References Novinger, T. 2013. Intercultural Communication: A Practical Guide. University of Texas Press. Plappert, S. 2010. Intercultural Communication, Globalisation and Advertising: The Influence of Culture in Global Advertising Campaigns. GRIN Verlag. Kotthoff, H. and Oatey, H.S. 2007. Handbook of Intercultural Communication. Walter de Gruyter. Gudykunst, W.B. 2005. Theorizing About Intercultural Communication. SAGE. Gudykunst, W.B. 2003. Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Communication. SAGE. Scollon, R. et al. 2012. Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach. John Wiley Sons. Gudykunst, W.B. and Mody, B. 2002. Handbook of International and Intercultural Communication. SAGE. Sorrells, K. 2015. Intercultural Communication: Globalization and Social Justice. SAGE Publications.