Sometimes, I regretted immediately the quick remark I just made. Like a few days ago, I walked next to Prof. Dou and recounted what my college classmates thought about men’s height, an important consideration for a potential boyfriend in the late 1970s. I would not have said that if Prof. Dou were short, but I would not have said it either had I thought about how other people in our sightseeing group might feel. Such a slip happens to me from time to time, and now I know it’s my hidden brain that does it when I am not paying enough attention.
A girlfriend of mine complained about verbal abuse by her husband, when he was tired and became impatient. He would later apologize to her: “I have no idea why I said what I said.” It’s hard for her to accept his explanation, but I told her she should. I also told her to read “The hidden Brain” by science writer Shankar Vedantam.
In fact, I would recommend "The hidden brain" to anyone, just because it's good for us to understand why we sometimes say things that we regret (often immediately) and how to be more forgiving to other people's "rude remarks or behaviors." It’s by no means a great book, and I don’t agree with everything in it. However, reading this book certain has helped to make me a happier person :)