Would You Feel Better After Receiving A Random, Undeserved Compliment?

Walk down 14th Street NW in Washington DC these days, and you may hear something nice about yourself.

"People are drawn to your positive energy."
"Your eyes are beautiful."
"You are always there when needed."

But before you feel a little too good about your own specialness, you should know that the affirming words are randomly selected by an iPod Nano inside "The Compliment Machine," part of a public art project.

Artist Tom Greaves told the Washington Post that the machine was a comment on the "everybody gets an award" culture of praise.

Consider it one more element of the "Blame Mr. Rogers" mini-backlash. The Wall Street Journal's Jeffrey Zaslow recently wrote that "what often got lost in (Mr. Rogers') self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself."

Or perhaps from a random phrase coming from a machine.

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Perhaps it's really the start of something big in public health. If random shocks cause ulcers in monkeys, who knows what random good words will do?