Recently I was invited to play basketball at a small gym in a Catholic school. I missed an easy layup and I mumbled a swear. The “crap” that exited my mouth immediately made me feel bad given my surroundings.

Three days later on a Sunday I was reading about an experiment in 1996 where a team of psychologists at NYU showed students words such as “Florida,” “bingo” and “gray.” After viewing the words the students were asked to walk down the hall to the next room.

Students exposed to these words, on average, walked slower down the hall compared to a control group. The associative words made the students subconsciously think of senior citizens and thus walk slower.

Insane, right?

After reading about this study, it made me think of my verbal slip on the holy hardwoods. Perhaps the words and thoughts entering and exiting my body, play a bigger role than I first realized.

I wouldn’t say I have bad road rage compared to most. However, I do know the worst version of myself lives in the driver seat of my car.

NYU Students walk slower down a hall just by seeing words that are associated to the elderly. The students didn’t realize it, but it was still happening. This makes me wonder what I am doing and not even aware of. Could the behavior of “driving Eric” be effecting “everyday Eric” negatively?

Sounds crazy, but not that far of a stretch from the NYU findings.

Can you identify the worst version of yourself? Perhaps that version of you has more power than we once gave it credit for.

Photo credit : Flickr