The Science of Comfort

in July, that's right, because you never know. In July you might need a bit of comfort, cold comfort at that point from your air conditioner. But um, yeah, I mean what I think about comfort. I think about quilts, I think about how Coco, and I think that some people are drawing more to comfort than other people. M M yeah, I'm probably about, you know, halfway there. It doesn't you know. Sure I'll take some comfort, but I

don't need it. I mean, I really like comfort. I mean I'm pro comfort because for me, I probably think, you know, and like a nice warm blanket, that's good cat on your lap, that's good hot beverage of some kind. I guess the comfort I do tend to think of it, especially something I seek out during colder months. Um. Yeah, which which also brings to mind like like chicken soup, something that I don't Actually nobody really likes chicken soup.

I mean, my wife makes delicious chicken soup, but for the most part, you're coming at chicken soup out of a sense of more than just wanting to taste, but you want all the emotions that come with it and all the all all the ideas about chicken soup that exists culturally. You know. So already we've talked about several different aspects of comfort, because really you've got the tactile part of it, and then you've got the food part of it, and then the psychology that sort of jells

all of it together. Yeah, because what does it ultimately break down to? Um Asking neuroscientists, and they'll say it all comes down to it being the opposite of stress, which is for pretty broad but yeah, I think of a thing of time you've been stressed, thing of the time when you've been comfortable. They're pretty much polar opposites. Nobody's sitting around biting their nails and guzzling chicken soup with a blanket wrapped around them while they watched Gilmore

Girls Marathon on TV or something, right. I mean, it's it's all about very specific and that's another aspect because I I know somebody who's Who's who that remember that was their comfort thing, And certainly that's another aspect of comfort is media. You know, it's like there'll be certain certain albums you might put on it. It It was like, yeah, I'm gonna put on some Boards of Canada and that's for me a very that's a very comfort minded soundtrack

to plug into. Or for some people it is a Gilmore's Girl Marathon, you know, something that they that really serves as kind of a replacement social engagements. Well for me, little House from the Prairie. Yeah, yeah, Michael Landon, all the schmaltz Michael Landon it could ever want, because when the world seems cruel and unfair, Michael Landon is there for you. So what we're talking about are three principles

of comfort, security, ward and connectedness. So we're feeling connected to your fellow man, which might have something to do with Michael Landon right, um, And each of these principles of comfort activate different parts of our brains. So it would make sense that you have this sort of big idea of comfort having to do with the tactile, having to do with food, having to do with music, media, um, all being rolled up into this one big thing that comes at the end of November, you know, into our

living rooms and Thanksgiving. And that's really why we wanted to cover this topic, because you think about Thanksgiving and ultimately you think about not just family conflict and uncomfortable silence around the table, but comfort foods to help ameliorate

all of those feelings of tension with your family. Yes, uh and comfort food It's it's interesting we start really thinking about not only what it means to you, because everyone's got their comfort foods, you know, and certainly there are some comfort foods that you think of a lot of you think of things like fried chicken as a comfort food or various uh you know, or a casse

role or what have you. Um. So, a lot of times it's something that your mom made or whoever raised you, something you grew up with, where when you eat it, it takes you back to that feeling of safety that you had as a child being provided for but then also a lot of it is cultural to uh you say you're of Italian heritage, then your comfort food might be uh not not only your mother's food, but your mother's spaghetti or than anybody's uh particular spaghetti recipe, or

if you're of German heritage, and maybe it's that particular schnitzel that really does it for you. It really takes you back and and and it might be, I mean, God help you, of schnitzel is what you eat every day. So it's so it's something that is also a treat. It's something you don't normally have, and then when you do have it, it comes in with all this cultural

and personal resonance. It's true if you are reaching out for a blood sausage and your German heritage, this might be just the fix that you need to pick up your day. Um. Psychologists call comfort food a social surrogates, as you already pointed out in different ways. And it's interesting because if you look at studies concerning food and comfort you will find a bevy of them. And one of the ones that I thought was really interesting is a study that had to do with people feeling less

lonely after just writing about food. Okay, they didn't consume anything, and it was specific to comfort food. All right. This is a two thousand and eleven University of Buffalo study. And so they bring in a bunch of people, so set them down and said, hey, I want you to write a little bit about a fight that you had

with with somebody that the relationship with you. I imagine that most of these are gonna involve like previous relationships or current spouses that kind of thing, uh, current girlfriend's boyfriends, etcetera. So they write about this painful, awkward or traumatic episode and then put your pencils down. Now. Six minutes later, six minutes later, and now let's flip over the page, and I want you to write to start writing about about some some comfort foods and about the fried chicken

or the blood sauces or whatever it may be. Write about some food. Yeah, that's right. Some people were asked to write about comfort food, while other people were asked to write about a new food experience. Right, So obviously you see right there, the new food experience doesn't have all the sorts of emotional attachments to it because it's a new experience. It's not related back to mom or childhood.

So of course, what do you think the results were. Uh, the results are probably going to be that the comfort food is the one that really makes the difference in most of these Yeah, that's right. What they did is they took all of the participants took a test after they wrote about food, when they filled out this questionnaire about loneliness. It was found that the comfort food, just thinking about it and writing about it helped those people

to self adjust their moods. Now, there's an important caveat here, and that is that, Uh, generally the individuals who were aided by the food, they were in a more or less good relationship that they just had some some either fighting in the past or or just a little you know, fighting in the present. So it's not a situation where you're going through like you just murdered your spouse to night before and then some reason you came in to do this study and you thought about mashed potatoes and

it fixed everything. No, not not quiet, It's not that powerful. But certainly if you're like, oh, I really love my wife, but we we just we keep fighting over what color of the carpet should be. I think it should be hot pink, she thinks it should be Neon Green. We can't come to a decision. We keep fighting mashed potatoes. Oh what was I? What was I upset about? Well? And I think it's just interesting because we've talked about this before, but how just thinking about things can really

change your brain. And we talked about this before, even in writers who are writing about their characters and people who are reading of novels that they are mirror neurons began to activate as though they were throwing the ball or they were running to to escape someone. So um, what I started to think about is that's really powerful

because a lot of these comfort foods involve fat. And there's another study that actually looks at fatty foods and moods and this was in the Netherlands, and what they were doing is they were taking twelve healthy individuals and they all underwent four forty minute fmr I tests while listening to music or viewing pictures that induced sad emotions. Now, at the same time, all of these participants received an infusion of either sailing or fatty acids directly into their stomachs.

This is where that the experiment really goes off the rails because the other one, it's like, oh, you're writing something and thinking about food, or or I can imagine signing up for the study and thinking, oh, or they're just gonna show at me like a large ventreer film and then feed me some mashed potatoes. But no, they're going to pump something directly into my stomach after I watch it. That's in addition to the large one treier.

Yeah yeah, but what kind of movie theaters that Yeah, yeah, I wonder if they did show Melancolia through them, because that would be a really great film to try to induce sadness. I have to say, um, but all all of the participants had um completed a twelve hour fast, so they came with empty stomachs and they had no idea what it was that was being put into their stomachs. Okay, So there was alts indicated that subjects who received the fatty infusion were less sad when viewing sad pictures or

listening to sad music. And then the fmm f m r I tests confirmed fewer neural responses to sadness in several areas of the brain in this group. Wow. Again, I'm still overwhelmed just by the weirdness of the experiment. But but I guess it was important because they wanted to cut out the actual eating of the food, and I don't know, maybe they just really wanted to pump

stuff directly into the gut. Well, what they were also trying to do is to say, hey, there's it's not just the mind body link, it is the body mind link. And we've talked about this before in our podcast about whether or not our guts are really our second brains, right, And then of course when we're they really wanted to look at the nutritional intake and when you eat food. I mean, it's a no brainer, but there's a lot going on. It's about it's about smelling the food that

you're eating. It's about the texture. I mentioned mashed potatoes, and it's true a lot of a lot of the comfort foods you encounter, it's like a creamy kind of consistency to it. Um. I mean, some people may have beef jerky as a comfort food. That's great, but a lot of comfort foods are kind of like a smooth, easy to eat kind of a thing. And again, just having a story about that food as well, you can circumvent that by just pumping stuff directly into the stomach.

It's also worth noting on that two thousand eleven University of Buffalo study, they also had another experiment where they found that eating chicken soup in the lab made people think more about relationships if they consider chicken soup to be a comfort food, which again comes down to my argument that chicken soup, even when it's really good, isn't really great because it's chicken soup if it's all about the idea of it, Because like when I think of

chicken soup, I think of I'm I was, I'm feeling bad, I'm feeling I mean there, you know, I'm under the weather, and like my mom makes me chicken soup. It's like it's the you can taste the love, right, It's somebody making the time, taking the time to make this dish that is all about, please get better and feel better because someone loves you. And I feel the same way, like when my wife makes it for me when I

whenever i'm ill. You know it's funny about that is that my mom doesn't cook, never really has cooked, so but I have the same feelings about chicken soup even though I don't consume it now, because no, I was gonna say I could look at a can of Campbell's and feel a little warm cockles in the heart there. Well yeah, well, you know, I think my mom I could be wrong in this, and I'm sure she'll correct me when she hears this, but I think it would like she would do like canned chicken soup as well,

because I mean she was busy as she did. I'm trying to make a bunch of you know, who has time to make like chicken stock from scratch in this day in war and day and age. But I'm pretty sure that was canned as well. But still it was this was a thing that you had when you were sick, and if you had it and then somebody loved you enough to at least open a can, and that was

the truth. If not boiled down the chicken carcass for hours and create fresh chicken stock, hey man, she she did many other things I would say to help me feel better. And I should also mention that, all right.

The eleven University of Bubble study, you mentioned the distinction between people writing about new food experiences and people writing about food experiences that they had all this comfort and all these associations for but in some cases you do encounter people's comfort foods that are associated with new discoveries because ultimately, like food is his very personal and also kind of selfish thing, you know, so in some cases it will be something that that we see as a

personal discovery. One of the articles I was looking at, I think it was a psychology today, they mentioned, um, the writer's husband went crazy for Sharaka, Like sharaka and anything it was a comfort food. Um. And certainly you get some spicy and some sweet in there, and sharak is amazing, But it's his whole thing was that this was something he had discovered. This was something that was totally totally him and didn't necessarily have a connection with

with his upbringing or his past. No, he just discovered that it was making the reward part of his brain go ding ding ding, really because he was getting a little bit euphoric with a spice there. Um. And I also think that too with new experiences and food, you know, you'll pin that a lot of times to travel. So you know, sometimes I'll think about things that I've eaten and I will elevate them to the highest level because I think, oh, that I had that in Italy or whatever,

and it may not even actually be that great. Yeah, but you still Again, it comes down to why I pump this stuff directly into the test subject stomach, Because again, food comes to us with a story, food comes as to us with a smell, with a texture on all of these things that go beyond near nutrition. And what we're talking about here too is really gaming a sense of comfort. Of course, there is the food industry which is really interesting in this idea of tweaking moods through food.

At the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, Karina Martinez Mayorga presented the latest findings from her ongoing study of the effect of various food flavors on mood. And it turns out that molecules in chocolate, a variety of berries, and then foods containing omega free fatty acids positively affect mood.

Um it was found, and this is really interesting. It was found that the chemical components of these food flavors are structurally similar to something called valporic acid, and this is the primary ingredient in several pharmaceutical mood stabilizers. Of course, the research was supported in part by a food flavor company France based uh Roberte UH Flavors, and the scientists say that food industry companies are joining pharmaceutical companies in

the quest for natural mood boosters. So they're not intending this as a replacement for you know, for for treating clinical depression, but they are saying like, maybe this could give you a little extra pep in your step, right, I mean, well, certainly there are a lot of fine arguments out there that that a lot of problems with health and even mental health um to a certain degree, can be treated through a proper diet and an informed diet. But again, yeah, I think of what comfort foods tend

to be. They can't be soft. They can be sweet, smooth, salty, and uh like we mentioned sugar and starch. They spur serotonin, your transmitter known to increase the sense of well being like prozac. Um. Salty foods spur oxytocin, the cuttle chemical that we talk about a lot that we also get from hugs an orgasm, So you know, that's that's that explains the saltiness there. Um fat is a good bomb

for the fear of starvation. So again you think back to our naked caveman running through the Serengetti chase by savor tooth tigers, a scenario that may or may not actually pan out. Actually me on that too much, but but still the idea that on a very primal level, we are creatures that are having to run fast to get away from something or run fast to catch something.

We need the energy, We need the fat. So that's why the fat is such a bomb for fear we're not gonna starve, if we're not going to be eaten on a very primitive level. You know that drives home well. And you know, it's interesting that you mentioned the fat because it takes me back to the podcast that we did on gluttony and all of that research about how when we lose weight, our body actually begins to game the body to to try to get back at the

old level because of this fear of losing fat. And in fact, people who lose I think it was something of their body weight have to exercise even harder than their counterpart who didn't lose weight, but they weigh the same amount um simply because the body won't burn as many calories because again, it wants to get back to that set weight that it knows, and it also begins

to crave more fatty foods. Yeah, and we, as we discussed before, and as it and as countless food documentaries point out, we live in an age now where all the fat you want just walk down to the storm by it. All of salty you want, I'll sweet you want. Generally, all these things are actually available in one bag at your local fast food restaurant. But of course we didn't evolve into that scenario. You know, that's not that's not

the natural availability of these various elements. Yeah. Actually saw something the other day. It was it was about weight loss and a group of people who had had lost weight, and it said, we'll work for less food. And I thought, well, if that's not a commentary on the abundance of food in the world right now, as well as a commentary and some other stuff I don't know what is um.

Then again, we're talking about this concept of gaming comfort, and you guys out there are probably familiar with this study because I think it got a lot of play. But this idea that comfort also comes externally so and actually affects our moods in ways that we might just make favorable decisions about others and what I'm talking about

is um the warm mug of liquid study. Do you know which when I'm talking about where the participants were given a warm mug of coffee, I believe to hold just for a few moments and to think about someone that they may not have particularly had warm feelings about, but talk about them as they were holding the warm cup. And then participants were given uh an iced coffee to hold. Okay,

so now they were holding something that's cold. And so it turns out that those people who held the mugs of hot Joe, we're much more likely to perceive others as having warmer personality traits. Well, this is basically this is the hot coco phenomenon here because with hot cocoa, well, first of all, are getting that chocolate that's sweet, so

you're you're turning on some various new transmitters there. Uh. Some people like like their their hot chocolate little salty, so you've got that going on, uh, giving you a little little oxytocin. And then of course it is a warm mug of goodness that you're having generally with friends or family or loved ones while you're interacting with them. So it tends to uh to color an even warmer uh interpersonal relationship. Well, and you know it could be

anybody then this this study which is really interesting. They could to be talking about co worker, they could be talking about their neighbor, or they could be talking about a family member. And this is one of those examples that neuroscientists David Eagleman talks about um when he's questions

whether or not we actually have free will. And what I mean is that if a warm mug of coffee subconsciously makes you feel better about the person you're talking into while you're holding the coffee, um, then what sort

of decisions might follow after that interaction or during that interaction. Well, this this reminds me, actually reminds me of times where we've dragged our recorder Matt in here, our editor, producer, director general, a man of our times, and sometimes we drag him in a ridiculous hours to try and get

an episode recorded. And sometimes you'll you'll give him coffee and I thought you were just being nice, but you were manipulating him by giving him this warm beverage so that he can't help but think will warm thoughts then about us and not hate us for dragging him in it like five in the morning. Thanks for taking that down. No, really, it was. It's all coming from my heart, my warm, warm heart. But still this is a good This is a good trick that we should all exploit in our lives.

You're going in for a tough meeting, or you want to just go for a job interview, you bring some hot coffee, some hot coco something, some hot tea, anything that'll that'll get the room warm, and do not let that job interview take place outside on a November day. Okay, So if you doubt this idea that a warm beverage or even just the warmth itself, it doesn't affect how we feel. Um. Consider a study by Harry Harlow involving primates.

Oh yes, this is the great one where they it was with maccaques, I believe, and uh and you've seen the photos because there terrifying, depressing, depressing where they have the baby macaques and they're they're they're given the choice of two or they tested out in two different environments. One there's this metal framework mother that that is there to distribute milk through a nipple, right, and it's just

this metal framework, and then there's nothing monkey is about it. Ye, vaguely monkey shaped, I guess if you really want to get creative. But for the most part it's like metal thing with a nipple that feeds baby monkey. But then then the other part of the test is cover that with fur and you have a sort of fake monkey with a nipple. It's it's soft, it's agly monkey ish, but it's covered in fur. And which one do you think the macaques prefer? Now? This one that had the fur.

The cloth was heated with a light bulb as well. Yes, yes, so it's soft and furry but warm. So the surrogate that gets the most play is of course the one that has the light bulb in it, because it turns out that the baby maccaux, although they would run and they would get the milk from the other surrogate when they were really hungry, they prefer to spend time with the warm surrogate and cling to it, which tells you that there's there's something just inherent to this, this feeling

of warmth and comfort in our ability to survive. And it reminds me of a of a study you sent me as we were looking into this podcast as well about the whole cold hands, warm heart thing which have tomit. I've never heard that saying, but apparently it's a saying cold hands, warm heart. There's a song too, really but I can't remember, but it comes on the system every

once in a while. Okay, Well, but the idea is that if I guess, if you shake hands with somebody as a really cold hand, it's okay because it means their heart is so warm, they're so full of warmth in their heart they can love for their fellow man. That is actually affecting blood flow to their out to their limbs, apparently, which I've never heard because because it sounds ridiculous to me, because it sounds like people with

cold fish hands. This is like propaganda they put out, you know, like like C e O S and whatnot, where they're like, oh, people think I'm horrible just because my hand is a piece of impersonal ice that I shove it people. Uh, maybe we should get some some some data out there that the opposite. We don't normally

um shake, but I think we should right now. So everything you just describe my friend is me, and I will tell you that even before I knew him, at the song cold heart, cold heart, Warm hands, I used to say to my husband, cold heart, warm hands. Um. So it turns out you were wrong in science? Is there? Because because because in the study they actually looked into a two thousand and eight researchers Lawrence Williams and John bra they actually debunked this and then found that the

physical warmth activates concepts of interpersonal warmth. And it's very much in keeping with the whole iron mother fury warm mother scenario. I know, I know, so it boils down

to actually pour circulation from me. Um. But but I thought it was interesting because I think that in the article, the question was whether or not people would perceive your handshake, your your cold dead handshake as is in a negative light and then inform their feelings about you that way, much in the way that the mug of warm coffee made people feel friendlier. Couldn't do the opposite. So here's

another idea to gain the system. Next time you go into a job interview or whatnot, if you know that you have the cold hands, or even just to be on the safe side, do a little palm rubbing there, get it all warmed up, and then then impress them with your loving handshake. That's what I do before I hugged my daughter so that she doesn't run in terror from me. All Right, we should probably take a break. When we get back, we're going to talk about automating company.

All right, we're back. So we were talking about the about the experiment with maccaques, about the the iron mother that's cold and loveless, and the the lightbulb powered furry mother that all the little maccaques go crazy for. And of course we've discussed this a little bit in the past when we've talked about robots. Yeah, we've talked about robots hugging you. And the reason is is because hugging

is obviously very comforting. And in fact, one study showed that when people engage in a hug for twenty seconds or longer, that actually reduces their cortisol levels their stress levels pretty significantly. And this is why you you said you always hold your husband in for twenty seconds, like count to twenty and don't let him escape until you hit twenty. Yeah, which he kind of tries to wriggle from, but then he lovingly submitted to my embrace. But yeah,

this is a really quick life hack. So of course, what do we do whenever we are trying to figure out something that we do human wise, we look to the robots to see if we can do something similar. And there's something called the hug shirt, which I believe we've talked about before. This is a Bluetooth enabled shirt made by the UK's Cute Circuit and it uses embedded sensors and actuators to simulate a hug. Yes, so you

could get the same effect. Um. There is the Hug Machine, which was designed by Temple Grandin and um, that is a deep pressure device designed to calm hyper sensitive people. Yes, and that's, by the way, the Temple grand In movie. Great movie. I highly recommend that. Yeah, that is really great. I can who's the actress who played that? Um, Claire Danes, right, who a lot of you know from Homeland. She's yeah, yeah,

she did a phenomenal job in that. Um. So there are these different ways that we have tried to create the hug. But what do you do if you're beyond the hug, If you're in a situation where you are actually taking the last breaths of life and you need comfort. Well, a few of possibilities come to mind. Self hug, which may not be possible, and that might not actually work because generally the self hug is something you do just to convince other people that you're making out with somebody

when you're kent right. Uh. And then I guess you could if you had like say, you could if you had a pet python, you could unleash the python on you in those final moments because get a combination of things there, embrace quick demise and uh. And then you also ultimately feed a giant snake. But but you're probably but what you're getting at here, I'm sure is that we should have a robot that that enters into the scenario, that enters the room of our dying and actually tends

to our final emotional needs. Yep. This is the Last Moment Bought or the end of life care Machine, which was made by artists and designer Dan chen Uh. He made this because he wanted to try to present in an extreme example of a world where machines fill in for humans. And now keep in mind too that we've talked about caregiving robots, so that art this is his idea is is I'm going to create some art that's

going to generate discussion. It's still very much in keeping with stuff that's going on today, because we've talked about robots that are being designed to help elderly people around to help them use the restroom. Not only the elder really, but injured individuals as well, to care for them in a hospital environment. So it's art, but it's it's like all great art. It has a lot of ties into our real current position and our near future reality. Um it is Uh, I think the robot in the art

installation is incredibly depressing. Yes, well that's your argument. I I interpreted it differently. Um, and we should we should describe. Um. So you're dying, all right, You're in this hospital room by yourself. That's important to note here. You're in this room by yourself. And then uh, in your your your signs are being monitored by this machine. And suddenly it realizes that you or your death is imminent. So what happens.

It turns on the last moment robot and it wheels itself over to you there and you're you're soon to be deathbed and and what does it do? Well, first of all, it actually embraces you a little bit. There are some hug mechanics that go on. It kind of looks like it's rolling dough out of your arm. But the idea is that it's supposed to feel like like an embrace, like somebody's roping your arm. But now we're talking about this plastic kind of arm thing that it doesn't.

There's nothing very human looking about it. It's all about the sensation. And then the robot actually speaks to you. The robots says, I am the Last Moment Robot. I am here to help you and guide you through your last moment on Earth. I am sorry that your family and friends can't be with you right now, but don't be afraid. I am here to comfort you. You are not alone. You are with me. Your family and friends love you very much. They will remember you after you

are gone. Sucker. No, it actually kind of sounded like how. For a second, I was going for a little bit of how, a little bit of David. Yeah, I was gonna say, Okay, so what what do you find comforting about that? Okay? So I actually like just reading that. I feel my heart strings. Kind of not reading it out loud because it makes it sounds like I really love the son of my own voice, but just reading it on the page. When I first read the article

about this piece. It connected with me, you know, because I'm because it actually reminds me. I mentioned Boards of Canada earlier. The UK Electronic Doo do a lot of very nostalgic, ethereal sounding electronic idem soundscapes. They have a track called an Eagle in Your Mind off the album Music Has the Right Has the Right to Children, and it's it's kind of a kind of a somber piece at first, and then it and then it picks up and there's a voice sample in there where it's kind

of a computer e voice. It says I love you. And every time I hear that, even though I know it's just a sample, there's something about it where I'm like, oh, somebody loves me, you know, it like it It's still connects with you. And I got that same feeling from from reading and in the video hearing the last moment robots final words to the dying. Even though it's just some sort of speech to text kind of scenario going on there, it's still I feel like it's still resonates

with you, you know. Okay, I understand that abstractly, but I still feel like it's such a personal thing and you want to feel connected, right, Because if you're drawing your last breaths here on earth, wouldn't you want to feel as though you were somehow pinned to the center of it in some way through another person, through someone's eyes. To see the light go out in someone's eyes is

just incredibly personal thing. So I can't I mean, you make it sound like it's it's to be like it needs to like find a dying person today and go look into their eyes when they die. Oh no, no, no, no, I don't breathing their soul. And it's wonderful. Know what I mean is for the person who is dying and for the person or persons who are losing this person. It's uh to me, my mind would be preferable to have the human connection. Okay, well, I would imagine the

human connection is ideal. Certainly, if I were given the choice between saying goodbye or being or having a loved one tell me goodbye and a robot, I would probably go with the human Uh. Though it should be said at least the robots keeping it together here, the robots like a saint, the robots like a like a priest giving you last riots. That's done this many times before. And can at least fake beings sincere about it while also not losing it because you know you don't want

you also don't want the robot. There's probably not a setting for the for the last moment robot where it just loses it and it's like, oh, please don't die. And well maybe there is, because you know, if that were, if that were to actually come to fruition, they would obviously the people who created the robot would want to try to simulate the experience so that you could draw as much comfort from And some people might draw comfort from the field because the message of the robot it's

pretty straight. But it's like, hey, you're dying. It's cool. Everyone does this. You had a good life, everyone loved you, and now it's time to turn it off. Yeah, I'm just saying I would feel jipped. I'd be like, really,

you're the last thing that I see. But but if the alternative though, Think if the alternative though is dying in a room by yourself or being vaguely attended to by an overworked caregiver who may or may not be able to muster some thake enthusiasm or legitimate enthusiasm and enthusiasm isn't the right word, um, compassion for for your last moments. Then I can see that the robot is being the preferred method. Okay, true, true. UM. Here's one situation that I will get behind though, and this is

this idea that you could seek a virtual psychologist. And we've actually mentioned this before, but NASA in their program called the Virtual Space Station Psychologist just came out of It's for Your Pilot program to try to UM have some of their participants really reach out to this virtual psychologist and gained some self help care. Yeah, it's UM. It's essentially the idea we're talking about here is you're on a long distance space journey, or you're in space

for a while. You may or may not. Maybe you're alone, maybe you're dealing with a small group of people, but as we've discussed before, that's a very intimate environment, and also you're dealing with a lot of biological funk that's gonna be going on. It is your body adjust a life in a semi waitless environment, and the best case is being locked away with a group of people is gonna get old. But then throw in a lot of vomit and it's just gonna get worse. So maybe you

have a laptop in a room. It's kind of like the confessional room you know in the reality shows where you go in and you uh, either you talk to this thing and you actually have some back and forth interaction, or perhaps it's more like a questionnaire multiple choice like

how are you doing today? A for great, B for okay, or C four I want to launch Carl out of the airlock and uh, and then the the machine will ask you, well, why do you want to launch Carl out of the airlock, and you're like, well, he's been I feel like he's just been kind of cold recently, and I'm reaching out to you know. A part of it is like let's get the astronaut actually processing some of this and setting it stead they're just brooding inside you.

And then also it could consuverably launch some some tips grounded in actual psychology at you give you some text to read about what you're feeling or what you should be feeling. Yeah. The idea is that these virtual psychologists provide a problem solving treatment. And so I'm not discounting you know, um flesh psychologist, because I think there are many many talented ones, but some of the success that I think that happens in UM therapy is that it's

the talking here. It's a lot of people sort of talking through the problems and in doing so finding areas that they need to work on or areas that they can find solutions for. Because if you've ever been, if you've been to a therapist and UM and I highly recommend it if you if you're even considering it, if you think, oh, maybe I should go up to a therapist for this, then do seriously consider because it can

be very helpful. But there's certainly there are times where you might find yourself thinking, hey, this isn't like on TV. This person is not telling me how to solve my problems. A lot of this is me talking through it and someone nodding and writing something down and interjecting a little bit. It's easy for people to make fun of that and belittle it and say like it was just me doing all the work, but that's kind of what happening. It

facilitates you actually working through what you're feeling. Well, and ideally these this program would have the sort of UM great sophisticated feedback that you might get from from a human psychologist. UM in the works. You know, hopefully this will be something that will come online later. But I did want to mention that twenty nine current and former astronauts have been consulted for the project and the trial has shown pretty good results in treating depression. And this

is according to James Cartrione. He's a clinical psychologist at Harvard Medical School. And uh, future tests with firefighters and e m t s could help launch a more widespread use of the self help software and eventually bring it to the public. Yeah, and just a quick example from real life of actual interpersonal tension causing problems for space flights.

A mission on Russia's Solute seven space station was scrapped after colleagues noticed the commander seemed uninterested in his work and spent hours looking out of the window on the ship. And in three years earlier, a mission on the same station was somewhat hampered by tension between two astronauts. So

also maybe it was haunted. I don't know that that could be a possible as well, but no, I mean, I guess the underscores the reason why you need to have people feel as good as they can up there on their missions, because obviously a lot of things could go wrong, all right. So there you go a little, a little insight into comfort and what it is. Is it certainly as you're seeking out comfort this holiday season or the next, or just after a tough day at

the office or a breakup or whatever. Because we didn't even mention ice cream after a breakup, right, I mean, that's another motif that you write. You never did that. I don't understand that because cold, it is cold, yeah, but it's but it's also fatty and sweet cold comfort. Yeah, okay. So I want to leave out with just a couple of quotes here about comfort and about our our search for comfort in life. First of all, here's a little bit from C. S. Lewis. He said, if you look

for truth, you may find comfort. In the end, if you look for comfort, you will not get either comfort or truth, only soft soap and wichful thinking to begin, and in the end despair. And then our good buddy Aristotle said, we live in deeds, not years, in thoughts, not breaths, in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should not count time by heart throbs. He most lives,

who thinks, most feels, the noblest, acts the best. Also wanted to thank Mike See for writing in and asking us to do a program about the science of comfort. So take all that with you as you eat some comforting foods and do some comforting things. And we would love to hear from you guys if you want to write in about things that you could comfort from, and more importantly your analysis on on what is comforting and

why is it comforting? What memories, what personal history is wrapped up in that particular item, thing or experience, and then uh, what about the science of it? Is there is there's something salty? Is this is something sweet? Is it releasing oxytocin into you? Let us know about all of that. We love to hear from people. You can find us on Facebook and you can find us on tumbler. We are stuff to blow your mind on both of those and on Facebook game certainly give us a like.

We can always use a little more support, and if you want to find us on Twitter, we're on there as well, and our handle is blow the Mind. Also, if you have any thoughts on the last moment thought, you can always drop us a line at below the Mind at Discovery dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works. Dot com