In all this ‘run-up-to-Christmas excitement’ (that seemed to start sometime in October) I clean forgot to update my dear readers on this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes.
As anyone who reads this column knows, I’m a bit of a fan. They’re the prizes that celebrate unusual academic endeavour and are handed out to researchers that have first made people laugh, and then make them think.
This year’s medicine prize was a good one. Two teams of researchers on different sides of the globe independently proved that people make better decisions about some kinds of things - but worse decisions about others when they have a strong urge to urinate.
Now I know why I bought a Christmas tree that doesn’t fit in my house, a potter’s wheel for my wife (as a romantic gesture), and board games (remember them) for the children… Note to self: no lattes before going Xmas shopping.
Here’s the references for the nerds among you…”Inhibitory Spillover: Increased Urination Urgency Facilitates Impulse Control in Unrelated Domains,” Mirjam A. Tuk, Debra Trampe and Luk Warlop, Psychological Science, vol. 22, no. 5, May 2011, pp. 627-633.
“The Effect of Acute Increase in Urge to Void on Cognitive Function in Healthy Adults,” Matthew S. Lewis, Peter J. Snyder, Robert H. Pietrzak, David Darby, Robert A. Feldman, Paul T. Maruff, Neurology and Urodynamics, vol. 30, no. 1, January 2011, pp. 183-7.
Tags: Ig Nobel Awards
