One of take away I heard on the NPR interview, was that it should not be so easy for a emotionally distraught person to go buy a gun at local retail store --ex Walmart--- and he gave another example of seemingly rational people loosing their access to the empathetic center so of the brain.
---See Bosnian war for former next door neighbor and friends now killing each other. A TV program I saw on this emathy center and bosnian war was first I had heard of the brains empathy center that humans shut off in order to commit atrocities to other humans----
This below is not the NPR interview I heard, it is just one of many links to this topic.
..." Implications: Minding the gap
...In many ways, these studies confirm our everyday experience. Things feel very different in the heat of the moment. We already knew that, right?
...In many ways, these studies confirm our everyday experience. Things feel very different in the heat of the moment. We already knew that, right?
....But that’s the rub. People don’t act like they know it.
...If they did, they would be more consistent in their judgments. They’d
consider how their current state might be affecting their perceptions
and make adjustments for it. They’d do a better job avoiding “hot”
situations that provoke them to behave rashly.
...They might become better caretakers, too. Studies show that hospital
patients–even terminal cancer patients and children–are routinely
under-medicated for pain (Twycross 2006; Van Hulle Vincent 2005).
..And how well do parents really understand their children’s anxieties? "...