mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
December 2022, issue number 2022-12. ISSN 1076-500X.
<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>
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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Ig Nobel Details and Glory
03 Not Using Hot Sauce to Measure Aggression
04 Improbable Treat-Yourself
05 Limerick Challenge: Hot Sauce in Hot Celebrities
06 Bureaucracy and Pencil Sharpener Winner
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Whiskey Drop, Sleeping, Lectures
08 A Guns, Saliva, and Hot Sauce Experiment
20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
31 — How to start or stop receiving this little newsletter (*)
32 — Contact Info (*)
33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)
Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.
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02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Ig Nobel Details and Glory
What you are reading at the moment (mini-AIR)
is overflow detritus from
the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
As the world turns, so does the special IG NOBEL issue (vol. 28, no. 6) of the magazine, waiting for you to read it and — if you are bold —to subscribe. See the table of contents and selected articles at:
<https://improbable.com/publications/magazine/annals-of-improbable-research-nov-dec-vol-28-number-6/>
SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE,
or get BACK ISSUES (there are more than 150 of them!):
<https://gumroad.com/improbable>
Tables of Contents:
<http://www.improbable.com/publications/magazine>
(And looking ahead: a special issue on Super-Advanced Theories is in prep for Jan/Feb.)
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03 Not Using Hot Sauce to Measure Aggression
This month's Haphazardly-Selected Study [HSS] of the month is:
"RETRACTED: Rising Up to Higher Virtues: Experiencing Elevated Physical Height Uplifts Prosocial Actions." Lawrence J. Sanna, Edward C. Chang, Paul M. Miceli, and Kristjen B. Lundberg, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 47, no. 2, 2011, pp 472-476. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.12.013>
"The authors, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, and the University of Michigan, originally explained:
The task of true interest involved allocating hot sauce to be ostensibly consumed by another participant (unbeknownst to actual participants there was no other participant or experiment), a paradigm used to indicate hurting (e.g., aggressing towards) another (Ayduk, Gyurak, & Luerssen, 2008; McPherson & Joireman, 2009). The hot sauce was prepared according the recipe of Leiberman, Solomon, Greenberg, and McGregor (1999), mixing five parts Heinz chili sauce with three parts Tapatio salsa picante to make a sufficiently hot and evenly consistent sauce."
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04 Improbable Treat-Yourself
Tis the season to do something nice (and inexpensive) for yourself. Why not, then, subscribe to the magazine. And if you're voracious, also snack on some back issues (of which there are more than 150)?
Here's where:
<https://gumroad.com/improbable>
Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/publications/magazine>
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05 Limerick Challenge: Hot Sauce in Hot Celebrities
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"The Spicy Spectacular: Food, Gender, and Celebrity on Hot Ones," Emily J.H. Contois, Feminist Media Studies, vol. 18, no. 4, 2018, pp. 769-773. (Thanks to Ron Josephson for bringing this to our attention.) <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1478690>
The author, at the University of Tulsa, explains:
"So begins Hot Ones, a YouTube interview show launched in 2015.1 In each weekly episode, host Sean Evans interviews a celebrity of varying renown—from Danny Brown and Joey Fatone to Guy Fieri and Neil deGrasse Tyson—as host and guest each eat ten chicken wings dressed with hot sauces of increasing intensity.... For cultivating celebrity status (in, through, and around masculinity) however, struggling to eat hot wings while carrying on a conversational interview seems to convey spontaneity, honesty, vulnerability, and authenticity—as long as male guests successfully complete the challenge in the end. For female guests, this 'authentic' aspect of celebrity management—achieved through the public consumption of spicy wings— remains linked to the coolness of particular personae."
Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:
HOT SAUCE HOT CELEBRITIES LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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06 Bureaucracy and Pencil Sharpener Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
"On the Malaise and Menace of a Pencil Sharpener: Editing Emotional Subjectivity from Objective Reality," Vincent Bohlinger, Short Film Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, April 2015, pp. 45-48. <https://doi.org/10.1386/sfs.5.1.45_1>
Winning limerickicist MILO DETERRIER writes:
The pencil reveals the malaise
and menace, while grimly we gaze.
Yes, we get the point:
It's dull in this joint.
We wonder why anyone stays.
This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
It's the movie's producer who pays
For the depth that the actor conveys.
One who spares that expense'll
Just sharpen a pencil
For menace, as well as malaise.
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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Whiskey Drop, Sleeping, Lectures
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG: <http://www.improbable.com/>:
* Partial Analysis of Behavior of a Drop of Whiskey
* Sleeping in the Audience at Science Meetings
* [VIDEOS] The 2022 Ig Informal Lectures
*…and much more
WEEKLY COLUMN IN NEW SCIENTIST MAGAZINE:
<https://www.newscientist.com/author/marc-abrahams/>
LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS):
<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>
PODCAST:
<https://www.improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/>
FACEBOOK: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>
MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science
TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
INSTAGRAM: <https://www.instagram.com/improbable_research/>
PATREON: <www.patreon.com/ImprobableResearch>
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08 A Guns, Saliva, and Hot Sauce Experiment
This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Study [OHSS] of the month is:
"Guns, Testosterone, and Aggression: An Experimental Test of a Mediational Hypothesis," Jennifer Klinesmith, Tim Kasser, and Francis T. McAndrew, Psychological Science, vol. 17, no. 7, 2006, pp. 568-571. <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.017> The authors, at Knox College, explain:
"We tested whether interacting with a gun increased testosterone levels and later aggressive behavior. Thirty male college students provided a saliva sample (for testosterone assay), interacted with either a gun or a children's toy for 15 min, and then provided another saliva sample. Next, subjects added as much hot sauce as they wanted to a cup of water they believed another subject would have to drink. Males who interacted with the gun showed significantly greater increases in testosterone and added more hot sauce to the water than did those who interacted with the children's toy."
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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.
SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!
< http://www.improbable.com/publications/magazine>
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
Ig Informal Lectures (online) Nov & Dec, 2022
Imperial College Healthcare, London, UK Dec 14, 2022
AAAS Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, USA Feb 2023
Ig Nobel Euro (and Brexitannia) Tour Mar-Apr, 2023
American Chemical Society, San Francisco, USA Aug 15, 2023
[All live events in 2022 and 2023 are subject to pandemical constraints and adventures.]
For details and additional events, see
<http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>
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30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine,
in PDF form.
It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think.
<www.improbable.com/magazine/>
SUBSCRIPTIONS ($25, for six issues)
BACK ISSUES ($5 each)
(mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)
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31 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)
This newsletter, Mini-AIR, is just a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine Annals of Improbable Research.
To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to mini-AIR, see the links at the end of this email.
ARCHIVES: <https://improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/>
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32 — CONTACT INFO (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
<www.improbable.com>
EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>
Cambridge, MA, USA
Twitter: @ImprobResearch
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33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)
EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Nan Swift, Stephen Drew
PROOFREADER: Ambient Happenstance
AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon Glashow, Richard Roberts
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the
(c) copyright 2022, Annals of Improbable Research
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