Friday, August 29, 2008

Future Ig Nobel laureate?

The following blurb appeared in the issue of mini-AIR I just received by e-mail:

"Bikinis Instigate Generalized Impatience in Intertemporal Choice," Bram Van den Bergh, Siegfried Dewitte and Luk Warlop,
Journal of Consumer Research, June 2008, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 85-97.


I googled the paper because I was curious what they actually did (especially given that I couldn't tell what they meant by "intertemporal choice" and---to be honest---after reading the abstract I still have no idea what that means). The abstract adds to the amusement:

Neuroscientific studies demonstrate that erotic stimuli activate the reward circuitry processing monetary and drug rewards. Theoretically, a general reward system may give rise to non-specific effects: Exposure to ‘hot stimuli’ from one domain may thus affect decisions in a different domain. We show that exposure to sexy cues leads to more impatience in intertemporal choice between monetary rewards. Highlighting the role of a general reward circuitry, we demonstrate that individuals with a sensitive reward system are more susceptible to the effect of sex cues, that the effect generalizes to non-monetary rewards, and that satiation attenuates the effect.

I think this is clearly a strong contender for an Ig Nobel prize. Maybe the peace prize? (Either that or physics.)

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