There is a classic, and brilliantly ironic, study on what sounds like a dry academic topic—situational variables on helpful behavior—called "From Jerusalem to Jericho" (Darley and Batson, 1973). The paper takes its name from the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), in which Jesus tells a legal expert (!) of a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho who is beaten by robbers and left half dead by the side of the road. The poor man is passed by two others, one of them a priest, who cross the road to avoid him, before the Samaritan finally stumbles on the man, bandages his wounds, puts him on his own donkey, and brings him to an inn to take care of him. The moral of the story is that if you "love your neighbor as yourself ..., you will live."
In the study, the wonderfully inventive psychologists John Darley and Dan Batson asked students at the Princeton Theological Seminary to prepare a talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan. The students were then instructed to walk through an alleyway to another building to give the talk. But Darley and Batson planted a confederate to act as a "slumped victim" in the alley between the two buildings. The situational variable they introduced was the amount of time the students had to travel from one building to the other to give the speech. Some of the students were told they had plenty of time before the talk was to begin, while others were told they'd "better get moving" because they were already late. When the students walked by the slumped victim, he made a real show of it, coughing twice and groaning in obvious discomfort. In the low-hurry condition, 63% of the students stopped to help the victim, while only 10% of high-hurry participants stopped. The irony is delicious: only 1 in 10 seminary students gave assistance because they were in too much of a hurry to deliver a talk on how to "inherit eternal life" (Luke 10:25) by helping someone in need.*
Thirty years later, the study was replicated, with a new twist, by Mark Levine and other researchers, but this time using Manchester United fans rather than seminary students. In the ManU study, some of the participants filled out questionnaires "in which their identity as Manchester United fans has been made salient." Other participants were asked not about ManU specifically but their love of soccer generally. All of the participants were then told to walk to another building to watch a video. Each of the participants sees a "choreographed accident" in which a confederate jogging by "falls over and shouts out in pain." In this study, the second variable is not time, but the victim's attire: some of the victims are wearing a ManU jersey, while others are wearing the jersey of ManU's hated rival Liverpool FC. In the first condition, where the participants were primed on their ManU "tribalism," over 90% of the participants stopped to help the jogger wearing a ManU jersey, while only 30% stopped if the jogger had on a Liverpool jersey. In the second condition, where the participants were primed to think of themselves as football fans generally, the participants stopped to help the joggers in almost equal numbers. Interestingly, in the second condition, ManU fans only helped about 20% of injured joggers who were wearing plain shirts, leading the researchers to conclude that "shared category membership is important for helping others." And, from my perspective, both studies help show what devious SOBs research psychologists can be, and how much more fun their jobs must be than mine.
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*I've read about the Good Samaritan study a number of times. People always comment on the very statistically significant difference between the high- and low-hurry conditions. But I've never seen anyone talk about the also troubling fact that even in the low-hurry condition more than a third of the seminary students, who knew the theological and spiritual significance of the parable of the Good Samaritan even without having just prepared a talk about it, didn't stop to help.
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Sometimes I have a recipe for years in my files and then I finally make it and wonder why I waited so long. This is one of those recipes, which I first found in the January/February 2019 issue of Cook's Illustrated. The author implored readers to give tilapia a try because it (1) tastes great, (2) is nutritious (low in fat and high in protein), and (3) is sustainable, a best choice according to Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, as long as it doesn't come from China. I'll add to those three things that tilapia is relatively cheap, with frozen fillets selling for $5.99 a pound at Trader Joe's.
None of that would mean much if tilapia wasn't tasty, but Cook's Illustrated was right—it's delicious. It has a very mild flavor (not terribly "fishy") that works well with just a squeeze of lemon, making for a really easy main course. You can dress it up with a sauce if you like, but Mom and I didn't think that was necessary at all. Now to work my way through some of those other recipes I've had sitting around for years …
Sautéed Tilapia
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated (Jan/Feb 2019) (article with video)
Time: 30 minutes
The tilapia tastes great with just a squeeze of lemon, but if you want to dress it up more, you can top it with a compound butter or a sauce like salmoriglio. I served this with rice pilaf. You can double the recipe and make it in a 12-inch skillet to serve 4.
2 (5- to 6-ounce) skinless tilapia fillets, fresh or frozen (thawed first)
~½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Lemon wedges
1. Place the tilapia fillets on a cutting board. Sprinkle liberally with salt on both sides. Let the salted fish sit on your counter for 15 minutes.
2. Using paper towels, pat the fillets dry on both sides. Cut each fillet in half lengthwise along the natural seam running down the center of the fish, so that you have two thick pieces and two thin pieces.
3. Heat the oil in a 10-inch nonstick or cast-iron skillet cast over medium-high heat until shimmering. Lay the thick pieces of fish in the skillet. Saute, tilting or shaking the skillet occasionally to distribute the oil, until the bottoms are golden brown and delicious, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip, then repeat the process until the other sides are golden brown and register 130 to 135 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 2 to 3 minutes more. Transfer to dinner plates.
4. Lay the thinner pieces of fish in the skillet. Saute until each side is golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to the dinner plates. Serve promptly with lemon wedges (see note). Serves 2.
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