The Dalai Lama mentioned, for instance, how fear can lead us to exaggerate dangers. This has been confirmed with an unusual experiment on emotions after 9/11, conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. Unlike most scientific studies, which often use small numbers of subjects, drawing them from the most handy fodder for scientific experiments—university undergraduate students—this study used a representative sample of one thousand Americans of all ages and backgrounds, measuring their emotional responses only days after 9/11 and then again several weeks later. The study revealed,
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