Scientists Now Know...
Startling discoveries by social scientists, as announced
in press releases issued by them and their proud institutions
The Psychology of Soup
OMAHA, NEB. -- Tired of relying on the signs of the Zodiac to analyze your
personality? How about using soup instead?... "The foods we eat say
a lot about who we are as people and, since soup is one of America’s
comfort foods, we thought it would be interesting to analyze personality
types based on individual soup preferences," said Dr. Brian Wansink,
a leading food psychologist and Healthy Choice soup spokesperson. "What
we found is that Americans’ soup preferences speak volumes about their
individual personalities and lifestyle behaviors..."
[NOTE: Wansink is professor of nutritional science, marketing and consumer
economics at the University of Illinois.
His research on this topic was published in the November 2000 issue of the
Journal of Database Marketing.]
Contact: Kristin Dormeyer 314/982-0585 or Renee Jacquot 314/982-0566
Movie Plots Reflect Real Life
SANTA CRUZ, CA. -- The enormous popularity of films like Titanic, The Bridges
of Madison County, and Pretty Woman reveals the universal appeal of a good
love story. As in real life, though, the stories told in these three blockbusters
don't always end happily. Sociologist Marcia Millman, a professor at the
University of California,
Santa Cruz, believes that is part of their appeal. In her new book The
Seven Stories of Love: And How to Choose Your Happy Ending (New York, NY:
William Morrow, 2001), Millman asserts that these films resonate with audiences
in part because they reflect plot lines that turn up over and over again
in real life....
Contact: Jennifer McNulty (831) 459-2495 <jmcnulty@cats.ucsc.edu>
Study Finds Depressed Employees Take Twice as Many Sick Days
Washington, D.C.- A just-released longitudinal study... confirms that depression
is common in the workplace and detrimental to employee performance. These
findings are reported in the May [2001] issue of The American Journal of
Psychiatry, the monthly scientific journal of the American Psychiatric Association....
The Yale University research investigators
termed decreased productivity on the job as "presenteeism."
Contact: John Blamphin (202)682-6140 <jblamphi@psych.org>
© Copyright 2001 Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
This HotAIR feature first appeared in VOLUME
7-ISSUE 6 of the print magazine. For a complete list of web site featured
articles, see What's New.