Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Full mental jacket

From the NY Times: “In men, ‘trigger happy’ may be a hormonal impulse”:

Psychologists at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., enrolled 30 male students in what they described as a taste study. The researchers took saliva samples from the students and measured testosterone levels.

They then seated the young men, one at a time, at a table in a bare room; on the table were pieces of paper and either the board game Mouse Trap or a large handgun.

Their instructions: take apart the game or the gun and write directions for assembly and disassembly.

Fifteen minutes later, the psychologists measured saliva testosterone again and found that the levels had spiked in men who had handled the gun but had stayed steady in those working with the board game.
I’m not convinced this has anything to do with guns per se. I’m sure the same results would have been found with the following control-test pairs:

Led Zeppelin vs. Barry Manilow
Mustang vs. minivan
Buffalo wings vs. Caesar salad
NASCAR vs. baseball

Create you own!

2 comments:

Bruce said...

Grilled sirloin vs. tofu anything

COPS vs. Golden Girls

Makita LS1013 sliding compound miter saw vs. crochet hook

Ronald Reagan vs. Jimmy Carter
George H.W. Bush vs, Mike Dukakis
George W. Bush vs. John F. Kerry
_____________ vs. Hillary Clinton

Carlos DelFuego said...

Man this begs the question of wether the test is viable in the gay community:

Brad vs. Angelina
Macy's vs Home Depot

And would anyone survive:

Bill vs Hillary

Furthermore, if you conduct the original gun bit in

Holywood vs. Tucson

wuld you get the same result? Questions I want answered now...