Science Confirms The Obvious

I was bored this evening so I started typing studies into the search engine and came up with some items in which Science confirms the obvious!!
No-brainer findings uncover hidden truths in conventional wisdom
Enjoy, as the following indicates is a "serious" actual story of scientific research and their "obvious" findings:

Unathletic kids are unpopular at school

The Study: “Perceived Athletic Competence, Sociometric Status, and Loneliness in Elementary School Children,” Journal of Sport Behavior, September 2007.

The Findings: Janice Causgrove Dunn of the University of Alberta studied 99 boys and 109 girls in Western Canada in grades 4 through 6, finding that those students who were perceived by others as having good athletic skills were more popular, while the seemingly uncoordinated often felt dissatisfaction and isolation.
Why Bother? Because no one had thought to study the phenomenon before, yet it’s crucial to understanding how social strata form among students. “We knew there was a common-sense link between lack of athletic skill and loneliness,” Dunn says. Although much research relied on that assumed link, she couldn’t find a single study to back it up, so she undertook it herself. “It’s funny how many colleagues have said ‘thank you’ for finally having something to cite.”


Materialistic teenagers are just insecure

The Study: “Growing Up in a Material World: Age Differences in Materialism in Children and Adolescents,” Journal of Consumer Research, December 2007.

The Findings: Why are kids so concerned with having a cool cellphone? Lan Nguyen Chaplin of the University of Illinois and Deborah Roedder John of the University of Minnesota looked for a connection between self-esteem and materialism in children aged 8 to 18. They observed a big drop in self-esteem in kids aged 12 and 13 that accompanied the “use of material possessions as a coping strategy for feelings of low self-worth.” But even a small boost in self-esteem, in this case kind words from acquaintances written on paper plates, caused them to forget their insecurity — and material obsessions — for the day.

Why Bother? Because, as Chaplin points out, her study could have practical benefits for material girls and boys. Keep kids’ self-esteem high, and they’ll be happier. They might also stop bugging you for a Wii.



Teenagers drink to have fun

The Study: “Why Do High School Seniors Drink? Implications for a Targeted Approach to Intervention,” Prevention Science, December 2007.

The Findings: A survey of 1,877 high-school seniors determined that underage drinkers imbibe for four main reasons: to experiment, to thrill-seek, to relax, and for “mixed reasons,” which is the category that yielded the most problematic drinkers. “Members of all four profiles,” the study reports, “indicated that they drink to have a good time with friends.”

Why Bother? “It is our hope that the categories we found will help clinicians to tailor their interventions” to individual teens, explains Donna Coffman, who conducted the study for the Prevention Research Center and the Methodology Center at Penn State University. That knowledge could help identify and treat problem drinkers before they graduate and become professional barflies.



Sleep and caffeine combat sleepiness

The Study: “Aging and Nocturnal Driving: Better with Coffee or a Nap? A Randomized Study,” Sleep, December 2007.

The Findings: French scientists gave 12 participants in their early 20s and 12 in their 40s either coffee, decaf or a 30-minute nap in the car and then tested their wakefulness during a 125-mile highway drive. Coffee was the overall winner, perking up almost all the drivers. The nap refreshed the young, but it didn’t do much for the older group.

Why Bother? Because late-night and early-morning hours see an unusually high number of fatal car crashes, and understanding why is one key to avoiding road fatalities. “Many young drivers are involved in sleep-related accidents, and up to now people thought it was related to a behavior, like nightclubbing,” explains Pierre Philip of the Sleep Clinic in Bordeaux, France. But the victims may be young shift workers relying on the wrong pick-me-ups. Taking note of age may be key in developing effective strategies for keeping late-night workers, such as truck drivers and doctors, alert. Bosses might send 20-somethings off for quick z's and (envious) middle-aged workers to the coffee shop.



Vacations are better without your cellphone

The Study: Ongoing research.

The Findings: Organizational psychologist Dov Eden and his team at Tel Aviv University studied 800 college professors in the U.S., New Zealand and Israel, finding that those who stayed connected to work through devices like their cellphone don’t get the psychological “respite relief” from chronic job stress that a vacation is supposed to provide.

Why Bother? Because time off is as important to productivity as work itself. Ongoing job stress can lead to burnout and chronic diseases, so effectively refreshing workers is a plus for employers and employees. (Eden’s research indicates that within three weeks of a 14-day vacation, for example, stress levels rise back to pre-vacation levels. He suspects that frequent short vacations may be more productive than an occasional long hiatus.) Bring the phone, however, and you’re still at work. “Work cellphones and company e-mail at the pool is not a vacation,” says Eden, who reserves his phone for emergencies. “People who do this are shackled to electronic tethers.”



Loneliness sucks

The Study: “Aging and Loneliness: Downhill Quickly?” Current Directions in Psychological Science, August 2007.

The Findings: University of Chicago researchers investigated the physical effects of loneliness on the overall health of young, middle-aged and older people. Sustained loneliness found in the 50- to 68-year-old subjects correlated with increased blood pressure, as well as a spike in epinephrine levels, both health-risk factors for older adults.

Why Bother? Because the U.S. is becoming lonelier, with 25 percent of Americans unable to name a trusted confidante, according to the American Sociological Review. Understanding how this trend affects health is becoming more important as aging baby boomers come to dominate the population.




Rock stars live fast, die young

The Study: “Elvis to Eminem: Quantifying the Price of Fame through Early Mortality of European and North American Rock and Pop Stars,” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, October 2007.

The Findings: Killjoy Mark Bellis and his colleagues at the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University in England examined the lives of 1,064 North American and European musicians written up in the book All-Time Top 1,000 Albums, comparing their post-fame death rates against the general population. It turns out that between 2 and 25 years after hitting it big, the rocker mortality rate is two to three times that of their non-rocker peers.

Why Bother? Bellis says they did this study for the kids. “Stars are important role models for young people,” he writes. “Consequently, the behavior and resultant morbidity and mortality associated with rock and pop stardom may have a disproportionate influence.” His solution isn’t very rock ‘n’ roll: Encourage healthier habits.



Standing is better for you than sitting

The Study: “Role of Low Energy Expenditure and Sitting in Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease,” Diabetes, November 2007.

The Findings: Marc Hamilton and his team at the University of Missouri-Columbia found that the recommended 30 minutes of exercise per day may not be enough to counteract health problems caused by sitting and sleeping the other 23.5 hours. Their research on the metabolism of rats, pigs and humans suggests that after several hours on our butts, our bodies shut down fat- and cholesterol-burning mechanisms, but standing switches those metabolic functions back on, and calorie-burning is effectively doubled.

Why Bother? Hamilton argues that since only 5 percent of Americans exercise regularly, simply staying upright by working at a standing desk or pacing while taking the occasional phone call may be a more practical first step toward good health for most Americans than asking them to go jogging on their lunch break. “We need to focus on the fact that if sitting is a cause of disease in most people,” Hamilton says, “then avoiding sitting is the most direct and simple recommendation to start with.”



Long ambulance rides make you more likely to die

The Study: “The Relationship between Distance to Hospital and Patient Mortality in Emergencies: An Observational Study,” Emergency Medicine Journal, September 2007.

The Findings: Looking at four British ambulance services carrying 10,315 patients between 1997 and 2001, researchers determined that every six miles between patient and hospital increased the risk of death by 1 percent. The risks were even greater for patients with severe respiratory ailments: They had a 20 percent greater chance of death if the hospital was more than 12 miles away.

Why Bother? Because emergency rooms could become more scarce. A scheme by the British National Health Service could close several ERs in favor of big central ones. But Jon Nicholl, director of the Medical Care Research Unit at the University of Sheffield and the study’s lead researcher, says his findings suggest that a diversity of emergency services might help survival rates. “The ‘one size fits all’ approach is absurd,” he says. “I’m in favor of a mix of large high-quality centers and local immediate-care centers. We need to get the right patient to the right place at the right time.”



You catch the flu in winter

The Study: “Influenza Virus Transmission Is Dependent on Relative Humidity and Temperature,” PLoS Pathogens, October 2007.

The Findings: Experiments on flu-afflicted guinea pigs revealed that the bug spreads most easily at low relative humidities and cold temperatures, with the highest transmissions at 41 F and a humidity of 35 percent or less.

Why Bother? Because the flu may be easy to avoid. Scientists have long assumed that indoor crowding in winter was what spread it. But this study suggests that the flu just lives longest in dry, cold conditions. So close the window. The flu, writes Anice Lowen of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, could be fought off “by simply maintaining room air at warm temperatures and either intermediate or high relative humidities.”



Wow!! Well at least they didn't have to do a study to see if "looks" matter when choosing a mate, Right?? Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm~~I Guess They Did:


Looks are everything: study~~

While humans may consider themselves highly sophisticated beings, a new study says that when it comes to choosing a mate, we resort to the most basic of selection processes: looks.

Despite claims by individuals to the contrary, physical beauty is the key trait men look for, according to research by Indiana University cognitive scientist Peter Todd. Women, on the other hand, are choosier but tend to pick men who can offer material wealth and security that is on par with how the women perceive their own attractiveness.

"Evolutionary theories in psychology suggest that men and women should trade off different traits in each other, and when we look at the actual mate choices people make, this is what we find evidence for," Todd said in a release in advance of his study, which is to be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Ancestral individuals who made their mate choices in this way — women trading off their attractiveness for higher-quality men and men looking for any attractive women who will accept them — would have had an evolutionary advantage in greater numbers of successful offspring."

The study used a speed-dating session to compare what people said they wanted in a mate with whom they actually chose. Speed dating is where men and women have a number of "mini-dates" that last only a few minutes, giving them only a short time to decide whether they would like to go on a proper date with that person.

At the end of the mini-date, the men and women must check a box on a card to indicate whether or not they would like to see the other person again.

Todd and his research colleagues say speed-dating events are a "microcosm where mate choices are made sequentially in a faster and more formalized fashion than in daily life." In the study, 46 adults in a speed-dating session in Germany were asked to fill out a questionnaire that assessed themselves and their ideal mate, grading traits such as physical attractiveness, financial status, health and parenting qualities.

Most said they wanted a mate like themselves, yet when the sessions began, the men sought the more attractive women. The women, meanwhile, were drawn to material wealth and security, and set their standards according to how they viewed their own attractiveness. The study also found that men wanted to see half the women they met again, while the women wanted to meet only a third of the men again.

Todd said he plans to conduct several other speed-dating sessions to confirm the findings.
"Speed dating lets us look at a large number of mate-choice decisions collected in a short amount of time," he said. "It only captures the initial stage of the extended process involved in long-term mate choice. But that initial expression of interest is crucial for launching everything else."

Too much nonsense for one day, so I shall close this for now!! Have A Great Evening And An Awesome Thursday!!