Consumers are attracted by alliteration

Which would you prefer – a super sundae or a mega sundae? Image source.

In one experiment, a promotion using the alliterative phrase “4 flapjacks $4.13” was judged “a good deal” more often than promotions for both “4 flapjacks $3.87” and “4 pancakes $4.13,” a result the authors attributed to the greater processing efficiency facilitated by phonetic overlap.

In addition, in a small field demonstration at an ice cream shop, the professors promoted an ice cream sundae on successive Saturdays, initially advertising it as a “mega sundae $5.99” and the next week as a “super sundae $6.00.” The super sundae outsold the mega sundae as a proportion of total sales, by a factor of almost 2.

Source: Alliterative Product Promotions Pique Purchasers – Science Daily.

Ira Glass on the gap between a beginner’s taste and skills

Self-enhancement bias

Some studies, in fact, have found that people who are the worst at certain skills may be the most guilty of this particular bias. In 1999, Cornell University psychologists Justin Kruger and David Dunning published a well-known study that tested students on their relative prowess at things like grammar and logic, as compared to the others in the group. Again, they found that most people overestimated their competence — but those who were the least skilled tended to also be the least in touch with reality when it came to this estimation. In the grammar experiment, for example, those who scored in the 10th percentile had guessed that they’d score in at least the 60th percentile; on the other hand, the top scorersunderestimated their abilities, guessing that they’d land somewhere in the 70th percentile and actually landing near the 90th. (Another experiment in the study, which will shock absolutely no one, found that people who were in fact the least funny in the group believed themselves to be among the funniest.)

• Melissa Dahl – “Why Everyone But You Is Always Walking While Texting” (NYMAG)

Being cold burns more calories

Their article joins a growing body of research on the metabolic effects of cold exposure, some of which I’ve reported on previously. Earlier last year, in the journal Cell Metabolism, researchers from the National Institutes of Health likened these effects to those of exercise, arguing that a better understanding of endocrine responses to cold could be useful in preventing obesity. The lead researcher in that study, Francesco Celi, published more research in June, finding that when people cool their bedrooms from 75 degrees to 66 degrees, they gain brown fat, the metabolically active fat that burns calories to generate heat. (Having brown fat is considered a good thing; white fat, by contrast, stores calories.) Another 2014 study found that, even after controlling for diet, lifestyle, and other factors, people who live in warmer parts of Spain are more likely to be obese than people who live in the cooler parts.

• James Hamblin – “The Benefits of Being Cold” (The Atlantic)

Do People Want Clutter in Stores?

In 2009, the management of Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer by revenue, decided it needed less cluttered-looking stores, so it cleaned out its aisles, lowered its shelving, and tried to streamline its merchandise and in-store promotions. They were wrong. In the stores that tried the cleanup, sales declined, resulting in more than $1 billion in lost revenue, according to one industry estimate. Stuff went back into the aisle and sales went back up. (Undeterred, Walmart is trying again.) In 2012, Ron Johnson, a retail veteran of Target and Apple, tried to streamline the stores of J. C. Penney and to cut back on the promotional price cuts. Sales dropped 25 percent, and Mr. Johnson was out of a job the next year.

• Paco Underhill – “Walmart Can’t Escape Clutter. Can You?” (NYT)

The Invention of Indexes

Along with page numbers and tables of contents, the index changed what a book was, and what it could do for scholars. The historian Ivan Illich has argued that this represented an invention of such magnitude that “it seems reasonable to speak of the pre- and post-index Middle Ages.” As books became easier and easier to consult, the imperative to hold their contents in memory became less and less relevant, and the very notion of what it meant to be erudite began to evolve from possessing information internally to knowing where to find information in the labyrinthine world of external memory.

• Joshua Foer – “Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything”

Myth of Nativity Scenes

But perhaps the most detrimental detail perpetuated by most of these scenes is the complexion of the human characters in most Western nativities. The holy family is usually depicted with porcelain white skin and other Anglo-Saxon features like piercing blue eyes or rosy cheeks. It’s certainly the case for nativity sets sold at Sears.com, while Pottery Barn Kids’s nativity depicts a white Mary with a gorgeously crimped blonde hairdo. And Sam’s Club apparently sees whiteness as a selling point—their “14-piece Caucasian Nativity Scene” can be yours for $79.71. Not exactly what Irving Berlin meant by “dreaming of a white Christmas.”

 

Though Renaissance depictions of Jesus often cast him in a European light, white images of Jesus weren’t popularized in the United States until the mid-19th century, according to Edward Blum and Paul Harvey in The Color of Christ.  “The transformation of Jesus from light to white in the young United States made him, on one hand, a cultural icon of white power,” Blum and Harvey note. While the previous problems with popular nativities are largely innocuous flourishes amassed over centuries, this one is more serious. It inadvertently reinforces the damaging cultural framework where lightness is correlated with purity and righteousness, and darkness is linked to sin and evil.

• “You Christmas Nativity Scene Is a Lie” – Jonathan Merritt (The Atlantic)

Hangovers cost the US economy billions

A new report from the Center for Disease Control finds that excessive drinking—particularly binging, defined as more than four drinks for women or more than five for men—cost the U.S. economy nearly $250 billion in 2010.

To come up with this price tag, the authors, Jeffrey J. Sacks, Katherine R. Gonzales, Ellen E. Bouchery, Laura E. Tomedi, and Robert D. Brewer tracked the price of lost productivity, criminal-justice fees for alcohol-related crimes, medical bills, and other costly ramifications associated with heavy drinking. They found that the most significant cost was the lost productivity of hungover workers who either showed up for work barely able to function, or who were unable to show up at all, which cost nearly $90 billion. In total, all forms of lost productivity accounted for about $179 billion of alcohol-related costs. The researchers estimate that the government, and thus taxpayers, cover about 40 percent of the total $250-billion bill.

Gillian B. White – “Hangovers: They’re costing the US economy” (The Atlantic)

Tv watching linked to increased risk of death

On average, 80% of American adults watch 3.5 hours of television per day and multiple observational studies have demonstrated a link between TV viewing and poorer health. In this new study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, investigators reported an association between increasing hours of television viewing per day and increasing risk of death from most of the major causes of death in the United States.

Virtually all Americans (92%) have a television at home and watching TV consumes more than half of their available leisure time, potentially displacing more physical activities. Previous studies had reported a relationship between TV viewing and elevated risk of death from cancer and cardiovascular disease. In this study, researchers at the National Cancer Institute looked at more than 221,000 individuals aged 50-71 years old who were free of chronic disease at study entry. They confirmed the association for higher mortality risk from cancer and heart disease. In addition, they identified new associations with higher risk of death from most of the leading causes of death in the U.S., such as, diabetes, influenza/pneumonia, Parkinson’s disease, and liver disease.

“Prolonged TV viewing linked to eight leading causes of death in the US” (Science Daily)

Tattoos and Aggression

Swami and his team found that tattooed adults had significantly higher reactive rebelliousness compared with their unmarked peers. They also found that those with tattoos scored more highly in verbal aggression and anger, although not in the other two traits of aggression [[physical aggression and hostility].

The study also found that women reported higher levels of all those characteristics than men.

• Damien Gayle – “Study restores link between tattoos and anger” (The Guardian)