Cleaning hotel rooms is a strenuous business. However, when Alia Crum and Ellen Langer talked to 84 maids, most were under the impression that they did not get enough exercise. Furthermore, when they were measured for tests such as BMI and blood pressure, their results were typical of couch potatoes. The researchers let half the group in on the knowledge that they were getting more than enough of a daily workout and kept the rest in the dark. After a month results showed the former group were healthier on every single one of the objective health measurements tested - despite claiming to have been doing no more exercise or to have changed their diet. The study raises the possibility that mindset alone can influence our metabolism. Christopher Shea in the New York Times and Ben Goldacre in The Guardian have articles discussing the original paper.
posted by rongorongo on Aug 25, 2008 - 48 comments

I don't know if any of you have killed anyone (I certainly hope not) lately... But if you have, these guys can help with disposing the body. The telephone number actually works. Somebody is there just to keep the joke going. Now, we've all seen the Bonsai Kitten and Baby Smasher sites (I'm not going to relink those, you know how to use Google, don't you?). How many more of these types of gross satire sites should we expect? What sort of social evolution do these sites indicate? A loss of sensitivity? A devaluation of human life? An obsession with death and killing? A just plain twisted sense of humor? What do you think drives the creators of these sites?
posted by Spanktacular on Apr 18, 2001 - 13 comments