Friday, July 02, 2004
Typewriters and potato chips: A study that proves an irrelevant point
'Loud noise, stress may prompt women to eat' - headline, A.P.
The study itself is hilarious:
A typewriter? Where did they find a typewriter? Why did they think that eating as a consequence of hearing the clacking of a typewriter was an interesting thing to study? If it was as loud as a jackhammer, why not just use a jackhammer?
But even the purported findings of the study are barely relevant: Why is it that the women in Manhattan, perhaps the noisiest and most stressful stretch of city in the developed world, are among the thinnest anywhere? And why is it that the women in any small town in middle America - I'm talking small towns in quiet places like Tennessee, or Iowa - are almost universally fat?
Stumped? OK, I'll help you out.
The impact of noise or stress on weight, however pronounced in an academic study involving potato chips and typewriters, is trivial compared to the way people live most of their lives. Women in Manhattan do not drive cars in their daily lives -- they walk -- and are under a huge amount of social pressure to stay thin (pressure that is stressful, no doubt, but apparently in a different way than typewriters). Women in middle America live in cars, and are in lots of company if they get fat. That's all you need to know.
No doubt, taxpayers funded this study.
The study itself is hilarious:
Klein and her colleagues presented their subjects with a variety of tasks over the course of 25 minutes while randomly blasting them with office sounds — a phone ringing, a typewriter clacking — at 108 decibels, the same volume as standing next to a jackhammer.
After that time was up, the subjects were left alone for 12 minutes with a magazine, some water and a tray of snacks — fatty cheese, potato chips and white chocolate, and lowfat popcorn, pretzels and jelly beans.
Subjects then were asked to trace their way through an unsolvable maze. Those women whose stress level was the highest — their blood pressure and heart rate remained high, and they quickly showed frustration with the maze — also tended to eschew the lowfat snacks in favor of fattier treats.
A typewriter? Where did they find a typewriter? Why did they think that eating as a consequence of hearing the clacking of a typewriter was an interesting thing to study? If it was as loud as a jackhammer, why not just use a jackhammer?
But even the purported findings of the study are barely relevant: Why is it that the women in Manhattan, perhaps the noisiest and most stressful stretch of city in the developed world, are among the thinnest anywhere? And why is it that the women in any small town in middle America - I'm talking small towns in quiet places like Tennessee, or Iowa - are almost universally fat?
Stumped? OK, I'll help you out.
The impact of noise or stress on weight, however pronounced in an academic study involving potato chips and typewriters, is trivial compared to the way people live most of their lives. Women in Manhattan do not drive cars in their daily lives -- they walk -- and are under a huge amount of social pressure to stay thin (pressure that is stressful, no doubt, but apparently in a different way than typewriters). Women in middle America live in cars, and are in lots of company if they get fat. That's all you need to know.
No doubt, taxpayers funded this study.
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