A section in last weeks new scientist is on quirkology; the use of scientific methods to study quirky human behaviour, or quirky methods to probe weightier topics.
Was a good read so i thought i'd share some of the good ones:
Half a group of volunteers were asked to answer a set of questions in the midset of an old person, and the other half football hooligans. They were told the experiment had finished, and the time it took them to walk down the hallway. The 'old ppl' took significantly longer than the other half.
Overall, people would rather wear a jumper that has been in dog faeces and unwashed, rather than one worn by a serial killer. New scientist points out the irrationality of this
In a TV program, one person talked about his favourite film of all time for the first part, then lied about another film saying it was his fav film of all time. Viewers were then asked to phone in and identify which one he was lying about. teh results were 50 / 50. The interview was then played on the radio, and again the viewers were asked to identify the false one, thsi time 73% of the callers got it right.
ANyone else heard of any experiments of this type?
