Page |51 Sultan (who had studied psychology) Power of Beliefs and his “lie-detecting” donkey. Lore has Beliefs may be patent it that the Sultan was missing a valuable detenminanta of behavior, but can they vase from his estate and suspected that kill? And if so, how? How can these one BE its servants hue stolem the piece. invisible, intangible entities impact Te identiay tte culpa, the Sultan health? In a now classic article published gathered his servants in front of a dark in the American Anthropologist in 1942, room in which a donkey was tied, and Walter Gannen, a leading Harvard then asked each of his servants if they physiologist and expert on the had stolen the item. Each said “no”. The autonomic nervous system, proposed an Sulla explained that tosis the room answer (1). Investigating phenomena was a magical donkey, Spewnlly tamed such as voodoo practices of the Haitians to detect liars, who would bray when and “bone-pointing” among Australian Slapped by someone whe had, lied. “The aborigines, Cannon found a common servants were sent into the room, one by feature among the victims of such rituals one, and were instructed to close the was a strong belief in the curse and an door, slap the sonikey andretum. “When associated morbid fear of the outcome. the: donkey bray, the Silt 99 That fear, he argued, could trigger a proclaimed, “T will have my culprit”. “fight-or-flight reaction” (a phrase he The first servant was sent into the room had earlier coined), characterized by and weturmed shortly thereatien— powerful and exaggerated activation of tremendously relieved as the donkey had the sympathetic nervous system. The net braved, One by ane, the Temaining resulting vascular constriction . Servants enteced the toom and retired. diminishes blood flow to critical tissues The donkey had not iota) est anal gill tte (i.e., ischemia), with consequent hypoxia servants looked quite relaxed. The (decreased oxygen) and disturbances in Sullan was Sanguine -~ be kaswr tas nor