“Despite the possibility of mixed feelings of disgust and amusement hardly anything is known about the relationship between these emotions.”

Prompting researchers from Western Illinois University and the University of Toronto to investigate  – and in so doing constructing what maybe the only formal psychology study to have centred around the work of transgressive cult film-maker John Waters.The experimenters showed a two-minute disgusting/humorous clip from Waters’ 1972 film Pink Flamingos (an exercise in poor taste) to students “… attending a general psychology course at a large, public university in the Midwest United States” (possibly Western Illinois University?)
The clip highlighted lead character Devine engaging in behaviour featuring (an) extremely bad taste. In general, most of the students did report feeling simultaneously amused and disgusted – and further analysis of the results found that…

“…in a situation that elicited both emotions, the intensity of disgust varied independently of the intensity of amusement.“

The team point out that there is more work to be done however -

“Future research also needs to examine the generalisability of our findings to other examples of disgusting humour, especially ones that are less disgusting.”

The  paper: ‘That’s disgusting! …, but very amusing: Mixed feelings of amusement and disgust’ was published in Cognition and Emotion, Volume 21, Number 5, August 2007 , pp. 1102-1113(12).

Supporting material: The paper can be read in full here. The clip in question may be viewed here. Warning: best avoided by those of a sensitive disposition or with an allergy to peanut butter.

Here’s kissing data from the experiment. The citation and further quotations appear below it.

The study is “Short-Duration Exposure and the Transmission of Rhinoviral Colds,” D.J. D’Alessio, C.K. Meschievitz, J.A. Peterson, C.R. Dick and E.C. Dick, Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 150, no. 2, August 1984, pp. 189-94. The authors, at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, say:

Casual social encounters or kisses between infected and susceptible individuals are probably unlikely to result in the transmission of rhinoviruses….

Kissing experiment. Direct oral contact was an obvious route of possible transmission and was explored next. Forty-eight hours after being infected with RV55, four donors kissed five recipients for 1 min. A second group of six donors, similarly infected, kissed 11 recipients for 1.5 min (two 45-sec contacts)….

Data from our previous and current experiments provide some possible explanations for the modest rate of rhinoviral transmission by kissing. The mouth is the most likely portal of viral exit and entry during kissing, with saliva serving as the vehicle for viral transfer….

In our current studies we were unable to recover virus from nearly 90070 of specimens from donors’ lips. These results with lip and saliva specimens, along with the 8,000-fold lower level of sensitivity to infection via the tongue than via the intranasal route, may explain the difficulty of direct oral transmission of rhinovirus….

During kissing the lateral margins of donor and recipient noses may also touch. [Our observations, as well as previous data] suggests that transmission resulting from nose-to-nose contact during kissing is infrequent….

BONUS QUOTE: “A series of experiments was designed for the measurement of virus levels and the exploration of susceptibility to the virus at the portals of its entry and exit via direct or indirect contact, such as kissing, nosepicking, and nailbiting.”

HAVE you wondered why manufacturers have taken to adding scents to more and more consumer products – including car tyres (28 March 2009)? If so, a study in the US Journal of Consumer Research, has this answer: “Product scent may be particularly effective at enhancing memory for product information as a function of its ability to enhance a product’s distinctiveness within its surrounding context.”

Shorn of its clunky language, what this means is that if products have a smell you’re likely to remember them better. That makes sense to us. We always make a point of remembering which products are scented so we’ll be sure never to buy them again.

The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”

In 2004 the Ig Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Daisuke Inoue of Hyogo, Japan, for inventing karaoke, thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.

BONUS FACT: The Philippines have a deep involvement with the Ig Nobel Peace Prize. The 1993 Ig Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Pepsi-Cola Company of the Philippines, suppliers of sugary hopes and dreams, for sponsoring a contest to create a millionaire, and then announcing the wrong winning number, thereby inciting and uniting 800,000 riotously expectant winners, and bringing many warring factions together for the first time in their nation’s history.

Disrupting Urination Norms
In Mumbai someone kindly explained to me the custom of putting wall tiles of gods from different religions along street facades. They’re positioned at pissing height – and act as a perfect deterrent in a reverent nation.

“THE INSPECTION OF STEAM BOILERS.
Let it be clearly understood that if there were no steam generators using steam under pressure there would be no boiler inspection, and no licensing of engineers.”

[from "Snippets of Instruction," in AIR 15:4.]

“Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Mark W. Bailey, Clark L. Coleman and Jack W. Davidson, Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education archive, Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, Portland, OR, USA, 2008, pp. 315-319. The authors, at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY and at the University of Virginia, report:

“To avoid the controversy associated with teaching students how to write malicious software, we focused the course on techniques for defending against viruses, so we named the course Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

“A clear plastic Easy Inter Burial Container, where the body is additionally encased in clear resin and is standing erect for all to view during installation, creates a very impressive image.”

More details at Really Magazine

Saudi’s Reject Pakistani Diplomat Whose Name Translates to ‘Biggest Dick

A high level Pakistani diplomat has been rejected as Ambassador of Saudi Arabia because his name, Akbar Zib, equates to “Biggest Dick” in Arabic. Saudi officials, apparently overwhelmed by the idea of the name, put their foot down and gave the idea of his being posted there, the kibosh….

He most recently served as High Commissioner Designate of Pakistan to Canada, and prior to that he was the ambassador of Pakistan to South Africa,. He also served in that capacity in Washington from 1983-87, and New Delhi from 1994-2000.

Income and orgasms are statistical food for thought, thanks to Pollet and Nettle:

“Partner Wealth Predicts Self-Reported Orgasm Frequency in a Sample of Chinese Women,” Thomas V. Pollet and Daniel Nettle, Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 30, no. 2, March 2009, pp. 146-151. (Thanks to Ig Nobel Prize winner Francis Fesmire for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Newcastle University, report:

“We investigated the relationship between women’s self-reported orgasm frequency and the characteristics of their partners in a large representative sample from the Chinese Health and Family Life Survey. We found that women report more frequent orgasms the higher their partner’s income is.”

It’s gripping TV, there’s no question about it. The Today Show, with its new medical correspondent, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, launched a week-long series Monday showing patients undergoing surgical procedures live on television. In the first episode, Dr. Nancy (as [Today Show host] Meredith Viera calls her; ugh) sits with a physician while he manipulates a remote-controlled catheter inside the heart of a patient with atrial fibrillation….

What makes it gripping is not the visuals, but the possibility that the patient might die on live television. Wouldn’t that be exciting?

“A New Dynamic Clothing Model. Part 2: Parameters of the Underclothing Microclimate,” Hayet Sari and Xavier Berger, International Journal of Thermal Sciences, vol. 39, no. 6, June 2000, pp. 684-92. (Thanks to Lisabeth Ng for bringing this to our attention.)