I assume there must be some name for this, static­elec­trici­tio­phobia or something. I am talking about the unnat­ural fear of getting an electric shock due to the build-up of static electricity. People who have this condi­tion are gener­ally hesitant about touching metallic surfaces. For the last few days, I’ve been one of those people.

Come to think of it, there’s nothing unnat­ural about it. In an exper­i­ment with mice, if the mouse goes down one path, it receives a mild shock; if it goes down the other, it is fed cheese. All mice, except the cheese-haters and masochistic ones, will quickly be condi­tioned to take the second path. In a similar fashion, getting a jolt of electricity three times a day is an excel­lent way to condi­tion a person to be wary of metallic items.

Winter may be at the root of it all. It is so dry these days that a stroll on the carpet would be enough to do the trick. I wonder if there is some way to shield oneself from this annoyance.…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 14:49 and is filed under Daily Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.