Nadin, Mihai

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LETTER TO THE EDITORWhat is Anticipation and What is Not? Comment on Nauts,Metzmacher, Verwijmeren, Rommeswinkel, and Karremans (2011)Mihai Nadin Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012There are contributions to science that catch the public’s atten-tion for the wrong reason(s). The article by Nauts, Metzmacher,Verwijmeren, Rommeswinkel, and Karremans (2011), entitled‘‘The Mere Anticipation of an Interaction with a Woman CanImpairMen’s Cognitive Performance,’’is anexample. It was inter-preted as: The man’s mere thought of having sex with a womanaffects his cognitive performance. Some believe that this is triv-ial. Others wonder why the opposite sex would do it without anyimpairment.Nauts et al. provide a good overview of what is so far known.Karremans, Verwijmeren, Pronk, and Reitsma (2009) state:‘‘Interacting with women can impair men’s cognitive function-ing.’’Precise, to the point. Ronay and von Hippel (2010) showedthat the presence of an attractive woman elevated testosteroneand physical risk taking in young men. Again: precise, to thepoint.Nauts et al. add a concept that they either don’t understand ormisrepresent:anticipation.SinceRosen(1985)andNadin(1987,2003), anticipation has been described as behavior defined bypossible future states as well as by previous states. The expecta-tion of,desire for, and fantasizingabout sexual encounters do notqualifyasanticipation.Moreover, thedistinctionbetween‘‘antici-patedinteraction’’and‘‘pseudo-interactions’’isepistemologicallyvacuous. Anticipation is always expressed in action (Nadin 2010).Instant messaging (as pseudo-interaction) cannot be subject toanticipation, but rather to intention or to planning.Things get even more confused when ‘‘trying to impress awoman’’is compared to the effort‘‘not to appear as prejudiced’’while‘‘interacting with African-Americans.’’(By the way, whynot use the term Blacks, since the majority of Blacks are notAmericans?) The description, ‘‘merely anticipating other typesof high maintenance interactions might also affect people’s cognitive performance,’’ignores the autonomic function of anticipa-tion in the living.Terminological discipline is a minimum to be expected fromresearchers.Evenwell-designedexperimentscannotcompensatefor the misuse of concepts. In reality, the article does not haveanticipationasasubject,but impressionmanagementand itscog-nitive (and emotional) cost. A study of impression expressed asanticipatory process is yet to be carried out—hopefully, byresearchers who know what anticipation is and how it differsfrom prediction, expectation, forecast, and planning.ReferencesKarremans, J. C., Verwijmeren, T., Pronk, T. M., & Reitsma, M. (2009).Interacting with women can impair men’s cognitive functioning.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 1041–1044.Nadin, M. (1987). Mind: Anticipation and chaos. Stuttgart: Belser Verlag.Nadin, M. (2003). Anticipation: The end is where we start from. Baden: L.Muller Verlag.Nadin, M. (2010). Anticipation and dynamics: Rosen’s anticipation in theperspective of time. International Journal of General Systems, 39,3–33.Nauts, S., Metzmacher, M., Verwijmeren, T., Rommeswinkel, V., &Karremans, J.C. (2011).Themereanticipationofan interactionwithawoman can impair men’s cognitive performance. Archives of SexualBehavior. doi:10.1007/s10508-011-9860-z.Ronay, R., & von Hippel, W. (2010). The presence of an attractive womanelevates testosterone and physical risk taking in young men. SocialPsychological and Personality Science, 1, 57–64.Rosen, R. (1985). Anticipatory systems. Philosophical, mathematical andmethodological foundations. New York: Pergamon Press.M. Nadin (&)Institute for Research in Anticipatory Systems,University of Texas at Dallas, AT 10, 800 West Campbell Road,Richardson, TX 75080-3021, USAe-mail: nadin@utdallas.edu123Arch Sex BehavDOI 10.1007/s10508-012-9926-6

What is Anticipation and What is Not?

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What is Anticipation and What is Not?

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