There is a growing body of research into the effects of ‘grunting’ in sports. Previous studies have mostly investigated tennis grunts *, but now a new investigation has examined grunting in karate. A team from the psychology departments at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, US, and the University of British Columbia, Canada, measured the […]
Tag: cheat
How to ‘cheat’ at sport without really ‘cheating’ – part 3: Grunting
Our previous Improbable article in this series examined the use of placebos – we now look at grunting. Though several sports tolerate (or even encourage) grunting as part of normal play, some have complained that it can be used as a deliberate and unfair distraction of one’s opponent(s). With regard to tennis for example, see: […]
How to ‘cheat’ at sport without really ‘cheating’ – part 2: Placebos
In the previous item in this series Improbable looked at the question of whether ‘praying to win’ at sports might be ‘unsporting’. One aspect (which wasn’t mentioned) is a possible scenario whereby those who pray to win might gain an advantage by a kind-of ‘Divine Placebo’ effect – that’s to say they might try just […]
How to ‘cheat’ at sport without really ‘cheating’ – part 1: Praying
“Ajax, through Athena’s spite, slipped upon some offal that was lying there from the cattle which Achilles had slaughtered in honor of Patroklos, and his mouth and nostrils were all filled with cow dung.” The account above is from The Iliad – in which Homer relates how Odysseus prays to the goddess Athena to request […]
Too tired to cheat?
Have you ever been presented with an opportunity to cheat, but, paradoxically, just didn’t have the energy to bother? You may have been suffering from ‘Ego-Depletion’. According to professors Kai Chi (Sam) Yam, Xiao-Ping Chen, and Scott J. Reynolds, conducting investigations at the Management and Organization department at the Foster School of Business, University of […]
The Image of Those Who Make Medical Images
Radiologists, the professionals who create medical images, upon whose skill, care, and truthfulness we all rely, are a colorful bunch of people. A recent letter/diatribe in a medical journal hints at just how colorful and bright some of them can be: “Avoiding Testocracy,” Richard B. Gunderman, MD [pictured here], PhD, Zachary Ballenger, MD and Darel […]