Barbara Frederickson Immune To Reality

In “Immune to Reality”, Daniel Gilbert asserts that unexplained events have a longer lasting a stronger emotional impact. This is because unexplained events are unusual and uncommon. When events are explained, the explanations lessen the emotional impact because it makes events seem more common rather than rare. This means that giving explanations for rare events such as finding honest love lessens the emotional impact because it makes it seem frequent. Thus, an explanation to honest love can actually weaken our ability to find honest love as it will make it seem less rare and more predictable. In “Selections From Love 2.0”, Barbara Frederickson offers a scientific explanation of what love is. She explains that love is a connection with another

person and that these connections are further reinforced by micro-moments of love and positivity resonance. In addition, micro-moments of love and positivity resonance are when one becomes in sync with another person. This results in synchronous brain activity when people “click” with one another. Furthermore, Frederickson explains that this neural coupling can happen with anyone and that it is not just exclusive to a loved one. It can be a common occurrence with many people rather than a rare event. Because Frederickson gives an explanation to what love is and how common it is, our perception of honest love is altered in which we are prone to have a lessened emotional impact of honest love compared to if we did not have an explanation.

Frederickson offers a detailed explanation of love in “Selections From Love 2.0”. Frederickson states that “love is the essential nutrient that your cells crave: true positivity-charged connection with other living beings” (Frederickson 107). Essentially, this means that love is something that our bodies needs as it nourishes us and that love is a positive connection with a living thing. Additionally, Frederickson explains that love is not a special bond between loved ones or close friends but rather that love is a connection and bond with anyone. It is not exclusive to any person. This illustrates that love is not a rare but something that is very common between any individual. When there is a connection with someone, positive resonance is experienced in which our brains sync with someone else’s brain. This is when the brain mirrors another brain. Micro-moments of love are felt when we are in sync with another person which shows that experiencing love is common. Moreover, it is stated that “As you interact with one person after another, they

gently nudge you to attend to these others more closely and forge connections when possible” (Frederickson 110). In other words, we have a tendency to try to connect with other people at any occasion. This illustrates that when we interact with people, we inclination forge for connections with them and therefore have an inclination to obtain more love. Another key factor in love is the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone that is heavily involved in social bonding and connection. Frederickson states that “The natural blasts of oxytocin during such moment are so large and powerful . . . during more typical day-to-day activities, like playing with your kids, getting to know your neighbor, or striking a deal with a new business partner” (Frederickson 114). This indicates that oxytocin gets released in casual activities and interactions with other people which shows that oxytocin plays a key role in connection as it is involved in social interactions. Furthermore, oxytocin makes people more trusting with each other with can play a role in feeling connected. The vagus nerve along with oxytocin play a crucial towards having feelings of connections and love for others. The vagus nerve’s importance is stated as “It emerges from your brain deep within your skull and, although it makes multiple stops at your various organs, perhaps most significantly it connects your brain to your heart” (Fredrickson 118). In other words, the vagus nerve serves as the bridge between the brain and the body. The vagus nerve controls our facial muscles which facilitates better eye contact and the synchronization of facial expressions with other people. This increases the chance that people will connect and click with each other. This indicates that the vagus nerve increases the likelihood that positivity resonance will be attained. Since the vagus nerve increases the chance of positivity resonance, it also raises oxytocin levels as positivity resonance increases oxytocin levels. This creates more micro-moments of love which can increase our trust and love towards a person. Because our bodies have been inclined to create connections through our biology, many connections with people are inevitable. People are engineered and designed to love and this explains why love is not an exclusive bond between family, friends and romantic partners.
In “Immune to Reality”, Daniel Gilbert explains that offering explanations towards a events lessens the emotional impact of the event. Events that are unexplained have a stronger and greater emotional impact in our lives. Gilberts shows this through an experiment. The experiment consisted of volunteer students interacting in a chat room with artificially generated students. The researcher of the experiment pretended to ask In addition, Gilbert states that “Explanations allow us to make full use of our experiences, but they also change the nature of those experiences,” (Gilbert 140). This means that when events or experiences are explained to us, our perception of those events or experiences are changed.