Do Studies Tell Us About Us?

Materialistic people are less liked than people who find happiness through experiences instead of objects

. In a study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, volunteers were told about people who'd bought material objects - like a watch or car - to make them happy and about others who'd bought experiences - like dinner out or a vacation. The volunteers preferred those who had bought something experiential. When the volunteers described materialistic people, they said "selfish" and "self-centered". About experiential people they said "friendly" and "outgoing". Maybe materialistic has too many I's in it.

Multitasking has two I's and multitaskers can do only two things well at the same time. According to a study published in the journal Science, when volunteers performed one mental task there was activity in goal-oriented areas of both frontal lobes. When they performed two mental tasks simultaneously, the left lobe focused on one task and the right lobe focused on the other. However, when they performed three mental tasks simultaneously, one of the previous goals disappeared from their brains. The volunteers also performed slower and made more mistakes. Because the dictionary defines multi as more than two, perhaps multitaskers are only "double-headers".

Two dangers face pet owners - dogs and cats. A study published in the Journal of Safety Research based on a nationally representative sample of ER visits to approximately 60 hospitals from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2006 found 7,456 pet-related falls. From that researchers calculated the national estimate for 2006 as 86,629 dog-and-cat-related falls. Dogs were involved in about 7.5 times more falls than cats and women were more than twice as likely to fall as men. Nevertheless, only 1% of falls treated in ER's are pet-related - not enough to "pet-rify" pet owners.

That the oldest baby boomers - those born in 1946 - will be 65 in 2011 was enough to attract the attention of food companies. That's because baby boomers snack more than twice as much as other age groups - on average 3 times a day. Because those 55 and older are among the biggest cereal consumers, General Mills has developed more high-fiber cereals. PepsiCo plans to cut sodium, saturated fat and sugar in its boomer products. Frito-Lay is adding almond products that are easier on teeth and lower-fat. By 2030 there will be 71 million Americans over 65 and healthy snacks will be the boomers.

by: Knight Pierce Hirst

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