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Top Comments: Advice [1]
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Date: 2025-04-25
One of the striking things about University of Chicago professor Agnes Callard is that under most circumstances, she does not like to give advice.
Dr. Callard has spoken on this topic several times and in 2019, Callard and Israeli psychologist Ayeiet Fishbach were interviewed by David Brooks (who, by his own admission, loooooves to give advice and considers it a part of his job as columnist) about the topic and Ms. Fishbach noted one thing from the psychological studies that she has done.
FISHBACH: These were kids that were struggling with doing their homework, and we offered advice to half of them. The other half we asked them, "How about you give advice "to another kid that's struggling with doing their homework?" And then we just observe it. Who's doing their homework more? It turned out that those that were giving advice were doing their homework for more hours than those that were getting advice. So maybe it's about kids, and so we go to adults. We asked unemployed people how to get a job. "What do you do to get a job?" And when you ask, and someone was unemployed, to give you advice on how to get a job, the first thing that they say is: "What do I know?" And then you say, "OK, but just tell me: What do you know?" Turns out that they know quite a lot, and now that also once they give advice, they are more motivated to seek a job than after they get the advice that we were able to give them, which we were trying to give good advice. We went to overweight individuals, again asked them either to give advice or gave them advice. They were more motivated by giving advice than by getting advice. We did this in a few other populations. One that was interesting was people that were admitting to having struggles with anger management, so angry people, basically, If they give you advice, how to relax, they're more relaxed than if you give them advice,
Essentially, people love to give advice almost on any subject and even seem to become more motivated to take their own advice once they are able to dish it out.
Humans have probably given and received advice for as long as we’ve been...well, human.
After I tell you who we are and what we do at Top Comments, I’ll link to a brief history of media “advice columns” and tell you my own view on the subject.
Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find! According to Wikipedia, advice columns in the local (or even national and International) newspapers date back to the late 17th century. The Athenian Mercury contained the first known advice column in 1690. Traditionally presented in a magazine or newspaper, an advice column can also be delivered through other news media, such as the internet and broadcast news media. (Offhand, I do wonder what is considered to be an “advice column.” I don’t see astrology columns listed at the link but I do know a lot of people do read the astrology column if for no other reason than to know what to look out for during the day as well as advice on their affairs.) Advice columns can range from the “Dear Abby” column to The New York Times’s The Ethicist currently written by ethical philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah (which seems to have one of the juicier ones today!) to the popular Reddit thread “Am I the Asshole” (which often goes beyond the simple labeling of the writer as being an “asshole” or not to the outright giving of advice). I like advice columns. Writers under pseudonyms asking for suggestions on how to think about or to handle a given situation is probably a great public service. Miss me with unsolicited advice, though. Usually the smugness and the power-tripping that can occur in that situation does nothing but pi*s me off and I am liable not to take the advice anyway if, for no other reason, that very smugness. Comments below the fold.
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Highlighted by Firesideman:
This comment by mettle fatigue in Zshmaendal’s recommended post I Refuse to Fight My Fellow Liberals.
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Top Mojo for yesterday, Thursday, April 24, 2025, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
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