WEBVTT - The 2023 Ig Nobel Prizes, Part 2 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:07.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:14.960 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.720 My name is Robert Lamb and I am Joe McCormick, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.400 and we're back with part two of our twenty twenty 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:26.439 three entry on the Eganbel Prizes. This is a collection 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.200 of awards that are given out every year by a 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:33.800 scientific humor journal called the Annals of Improbable Research to 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:40.639 honor scientific studies and articles that are in some way goofy, goobery, 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:45.560 or likely to cause a chuckle. Now, in the last episode, 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.560 we talked about this year's honorees in the let's see 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:53.199 one was in the Geology and Chemistry category and that 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:58.440 was about geologists licking and eating fossils. And then your study. 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:00.440 I can't remember what the category was, but it was 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.360 about turning dead spiders into robot hands. 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:09.559 Oh, yes, that was the Mechanical Engineering Prize, the Realm 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:11.000 of Necrobiotics. 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.720 That was a high quality entry. But we're back today 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.800 to talk about a few more of the winners that 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.840 were selected in twenty twenty three. And Rob, I think 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.640 you were going to kick things off with the Medicine Prize. 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:30.679 Yes, the Medicine Prize, which concerns knows hairs. So I 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:32.160 think this is going to be one that a lot 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.320 of I think everyone just about everyone out there is 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.600 going to find something interesting that we can all relate 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.520 to on some level. The study is the Quantification and 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:48.160 Measurement of nasal hairs in a cadaveric population by fam 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.040 at All. This was published in the International Journal of Dermatology. 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:54.000 This was in twenty twenty two. 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:57.960 That word cadaveric or cadaveric, whatever that is that makes 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.600 it sound like being dead, is like, I don't know, 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.800 a religion or something, you know, like oh, yes, the cadavericks. 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:06.600 Oh yes, or you know, like a group you need 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.440 to appeal to politically, Oh, we want to get the 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.400 cadavereck vote this year. I mean, I guess in the 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:16.200 past some people have gone after the cadavereck vote, but 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:17.640 that of course is quite illegal. 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:20.160 They don't get to vote. Side show Bob comes to mind. 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.960 Yeah, so, yeah, this study concerns nose hair, so I 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:27.120 think it will be worthwhile, first of all, just to 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:32.119 review what and why these are. There is actually apparently 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.000 some wiggle room for debate on the exact roles that 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.239 nose hairs play, which is always kind of fascinating. You 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:39.679 need to hear about this because we just kind of 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:41.679 take them for granted or we don't even think about them. 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.480 But generally speaking, we understand them to be air filters. 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:50.000 As we breathe through our nose, through our nostrils, the 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.560 hairs catch dust, pollen, and other particles. All right, then 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.919 you're probably wondering, well, then what happens now my nostrils 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.720 are full of dust and hair. Well, the whole idea 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.400 here is this keeps them from going straight to your lungs. Instead, 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:07.160 they just wind up stuck in the mucus in your nose, 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.760 So it's eventually going to be swallowed as mucus or 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.400 blasted out of your nostrils as mucus. 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:16.959 So together the nose hairs and the mucus form a 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.639 kind of like one two defense system for a particle 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.920 matter getting into your respiratory system. 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:30.200 Yeah, that's by and large the primary understanding of what 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.480 they're doing. So if that being the case, they serve 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.360 an important purpose, and more nose hairs may even help 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.520 boost our protection at least in some situations with some 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.040 potential illnesses. There was a believe a twenty eleven study 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.800 from ostark at All that found that nasal hair density 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:52.440 can prevent asthma in patience with seasonal rhinitis, that's inflammation 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.320 and irritation of the mucous membrane of the nose. Ah. 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.360 I never thought of that before. So having a hairier 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.280 nose could in some situations have benefits. 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.920 Right, not necessarily just across the board, but again in 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:09.240 some situations with some particular ailments. Uh huh. 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:09.680 Of course. 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.760 The thing about nasal hair is that outside of these particulars, 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.799 we tend not to view it as an attractive feature. 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:19.719 I was. I was looking around about this because I 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:21.960 was thinking, Okay, you know, with things like eyebrows and 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.560 so forth, there are often cultural differences. You know, what 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:30.120 one culture and in one time period finds, as you know, repulsive, 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.599 and other finds as attractive, and you know, and so forth. 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.000 But I was looking around and I couldn't immediately find 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.960 any convincing cases where particular culture, in any period of 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.160 human history went just all in on the beauty of nosehair. 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:44.520 I cannot think of an example, though it sounds like 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:46.919 one of those things you wouldn't be surprised if you 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.960 came across a line in like the song of songs. 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.640 You know, it's like your nosehairs are like the you know, 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.080 the eyelashes of butterflies or whatever. 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:58.960 Yeah, yeah, that's the kind of thing I was half 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:01.520 expecting to find it maybe out there. If anyone knows 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.279 of anything like that, certainly right in and let us know. 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:06.719 I have. I did run across a couple of sort 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:10.200 of like joke videos or articles where if someone was 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.760 putting like fake eyelashes lashes on their nostrils and saying like, oh, 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:15.880 this is the new fad. But as far as I 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:20.120 can tell, that's just just humor. But yeah, for the 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:22.400 most part, nose hair is something we're either just blissfully 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.600 ignorant of. You don't know what your nose hairs are 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.160 up to, or, as is the case I think with 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.400 many of us, you end up being painfully aware of 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.120 what your nose hairs are up to, and you're actively 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.560 trying to keep them in check, you know, especially as 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.120 you get older and nose hairs begin to get thicker 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.600 and longer. Well than it's it's just a constant battle 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.120 because your body has seems to have decided, you know 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.159 what we're all in on nose hair. We're all in 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.200 on ear hair. We don't have enough of any of 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:51.600 these categories. Let's just start pumping it out. 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:53.800 Strange that it does not do the same for head 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:55.040 hair as you get older. 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.159 Yeah, yeah, and often it can. It can feel like 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.240 a weird like, why aren't you growing more on the 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.960 top of the head. Come on, why are you? Why 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.839 are you diversifying? Like, just focus on the head. So. Yeah, 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.480 as humans age, the body seems to put increasing emphasis 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.600 on the need to grow ear and nose hair. This 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.159 is thought to be due to antigen's sensitivity or the 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:21.320 long term exposure of hair fallcules to hormones, so you 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:23.919 end up with the hair possibly growing longer and thicker. 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:27.320 This is annoying, I think across the board, I don't 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.920 think anybody celebrates this so much. Again, unless there's a 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:33.400 particular culture or particular time period that I'm missing, and 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.679 I did not look up ear hair, So it's possible 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:39.280 that there's some sort of caveat where you know, particular 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.919 time and place. Very furry ears we're in fashion. But 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.440 at least with nose hair, you know, not necessarily a 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:50.080 bad thing. Again, with certain ailments, in certain environmental conditions. 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.280 So for the most part, for cosmetic reasons, we often 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.719 try to keep our nose hairs in check. We do 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.520 things like cut them or trim them. We also them 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:05.320 or pluck them. I've never had the ladder, but I 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.880 understand this to be quite quite an experience because, of course, 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.040 you know, your nostril is very sensitive. So if anyone 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.760 has any firsthand experience with the waxing or plucking of 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.400 all their nose hairs, let us know. But doctors tend 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:23.200 to advise it in order to avoid infections and ingrown hairs, 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.880 which can be quite painful in that sensitive nasal region, 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.760 you're better off sticking to cutting and trimming. They seem 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.120 to believe that, you know, cutting and trimming, all right, 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.240 that's fine, go ahead and do it, keep things in check. 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.160 Waxing and plucking maybe reconsider that. 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:39.600 Wait by plucking. Okay, So I've never waxed my nose, 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.680 But to get maybe too much information out there, I 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.520 mean I have and I've never plucked in the sense 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:47.960 of pulling out all of my nose hair, but I 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.520 have had like one wild nose hair just sort of 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.000 like go and doink out in the wrong direction, and 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.000 what are you supposed to do about that? In that 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.280 case I have plucked that that nose hair out. Is 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:01.480 that something I shouldn't do? 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.000 According to the articles I was looking at, Yeah, dermatologists 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:08.760 tend to say you're better off not doing that. You're 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:12.120 better off isolating that here and trimming it, you know, 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:14.800 or trimming all of them. But but then again, it's 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:16.880 like you're just kind of it's not like that here 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.080 is definitely going to get infected when you pluck it, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:23.200 you know. I think people different experiences will will play 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.320 out different ways. Okay, but but yeah, certainly what do 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.480 you do in that that long one grows? There's there? 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:34.840 The recent Perry Mason TV show was quite good and 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:38.240 John Lithgalt has a has a part in the first 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:42.120 season as an elderly attorney who is going through all 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.440 of these various age related crisses but also just you know, 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:49.760 professional as well. But there's a part where he goes 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.720 on this big he's railing against the young Perry Mason 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.560 and telling him one day you'll wake up and you'll 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:59.000 have a nose hair as long as your arm and 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.920 so forth. So yeah, it's just it's just part of 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.720 getting older. But yeah, go ahead and trim them, say 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.040 the dermatologists. But coming back to the study, because yes, 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.360 we have a study here that concerns counting those hairs 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.760 of the dead. And I think it's easy to think 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.520 to sort of get into shrimp on a treadmill territory 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.160 when judging the set face value and say, well, why 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.440 is this necessary? Why are you You're counting nose hairs, 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.720 which sounds like just a metaphor for wasting time, and 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:36.760 you're doing it with the dead. What's the purpose here? Well, 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:40.400 the study, according to the study itself, they're they're ultimately 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:45.800 concerned with things like individuals with alopecia. In medical conditions, 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.600 you know, where one does not have hair, and we 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:50.599 often think of that as well, we think of a 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:52.840 head hair, we think of body hair. But of course 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.959 that's also going to impact your nostrils as well. So 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.600 think about everything we just talked about. If you just naturally, 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:04.040 due to this condition, do not have nostril hairs, you're 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:08.960 missing out on the benefits of this built in filtration system, right, Okay, 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.600 And therefore the author's stress quote the quantification of nasal 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:15.080 hairs and the effects of lack of nasal hairs on 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.679 a patient's quality of life has yet to be assessed. 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.240 So here's where they're going to start recruiting people of 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:24.320 the cadaveric persuasion. 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:28.040 Exactly well with the general idea of being like they're 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.360 going to start with cadavers, and future studies can look 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.240 at live human beings. But for this small study, they 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:37.000 looked at twenty cadavers, ten men and ten women with 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:41.240 the mean age of eighty three. They found the average 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.000 nasal hair count amounts to one hundred and twenty in 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.800 the left and one hundred and twenty two point two 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:53.080 in the right. Hairs were individually counted and removed. And Joe, 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.640 if you'll look down in the outline that we share here, 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.200 I copy and pasted an image from the study where 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.679 you can actually the cadaver's nose. If you're trying to 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.480 picture how they counted them. It does appear that they 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.880 bisected the nostril, cut it in half, and then that 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.240 enabled them to get at the nose hairs better. I 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.040 don't think they read the full study. I don't know 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.920 that they specifically said that this was their methodology, but 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.600 clearly in the photo the nose has been sought in 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:26.440 half and you see them. It's showing off the nasal 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:28.560 hairs for plucking in counting. 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.280 I'm really glad you included this visual. It does have 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:37.680 a strong heavy metal album cover energy. And oh man, yes, 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.560 the kind of gray matrix of hair that is like 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.559 further up in the cavity. I guess you don't think 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.360 about that. I don't know. I think of nose hairs 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:50.679 as being something that's more just like down near the 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:53.199 opening of the nostril, but it looks like they go back. 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.120 Well, they do get into this a bit, yeah, like 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.360 where is it thickest. So they found no significant differences 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.800 count wise between male and female nose hairs, and it 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:06.280 seems to be more or less the same history of 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:08.720 heart disease did not impact the count but they found 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.520 cancer related deaths lined up with lower counts overall, but 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.720 they suspect cancer related therapies or the culprit here and 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.760 they didn't have all of the medical histories on all 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.080 of the cadavers to be one hundred percent certain. No 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:28.240 significant location differences between nostrils, and they also stress that 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:30.199 the shortcomings of the study are of course the small 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.240 size of the study, the older ages of the subjects 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.800 who you know died at advanced age and the lack 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.559 of demographic and personal details. They add that the anterior 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:43.960 location of follicles supports their presumed role as a protective filter. 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.480 So more hairs upfront, because this is where you'd want 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.480 to start intercepting the particles, even if it makes this 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.600 more annoying from a cosmetic level. So you know, this 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:57.280 is why nose hairs may make protrude, because that's where 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.439 they are situated, because it makes sense to catch all 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:03.480 that stuff, okay, And of course they drive home that 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.439 they want to do future studies with live test subjects, 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.880 of course without sawing noses in half, I would imagine 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.439 in this case. And they will also want to look 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:18.080 at people with and without alopecia to better understand the 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.319 role of nose hairs and the ramifications of their absence. 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.280 So they seem to drive home that this by and 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:25.440 large just an area that we don't have enough data on. 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.679 And this is also an area where we can appreciate 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.960 the article beyond its silliness, right, because like your nose 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.959 is right there, it's right on your face. It's a 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:38.320 vital part of our body and we should better understand it. 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:42.559 Yeah, and I would imagine that depending on what they find, 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:47.360 this could possibly lead to better treatments or preventative measures 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:50.120 for people. For example, if someone has alopecia or some 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.160 other or has undergone cancer treatment, or has some kind 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.040 of condition that has rendered them with fewer nose harris 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.920 than they would normally have, and they also have asthmas 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.160 something like that, that you might want to have a 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.840 kind of nose hair prosthesis or something that would do 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:06.600 something similar. 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.160 Yeah, exactly. They stress that, like, basically, we need to 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:15.000 learn more and then probably sort of reevaluate our guidelines 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.320 for what do we do with people who are lacking 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.840 nose hairs. So they you know, they stress that synthetic 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:24.600 barriers are probably important, but we need to know how important. 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:27.320 And what's been done in the past has been using 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.360 things like aligning of petroleum jelly in the nostril in 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.480 place of hair, but they say that that's generally not 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:37.440 favored by patients. So I'm guessing that's not pleasant to 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:40.480 put up with. And so it's just an area where 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:44.400 more more information is required, updated guidelines are required, and 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.160 who knows, maybe there's some sort of new approach that 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.520 could be developed. So again, this is just a perfect 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:55.240 Ignobel Prize winner because it's just inherently funny because it 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:59.720 is about nose hairs. Nose hairs are hilarious, There's no 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.160 good getting around it. They're not so hilarious when you're 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.280 plucking them or trimming them, or noticing them in the 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:07.440 rear view mirror on your way to a you know, 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:10.680 a job interview or what have you. But are they 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.880 are nice? The fact that we're dealing with the nosehirs 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.040 of corpses, of course, adds that extra kind of gallows 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.200 humor to the affair. But on the other hand, it's 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.760 important because again the nose is right there in the 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:25.840 center of your face. It plays a very important role 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:30.040 in our sensory understanding of the world and our breathing, 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.840 in our health, and so the more we understand it, 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:35.880 the more we can understand, you know, our own health 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.080 and how to and also how to look out for 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.040 folks who are lacking in those here for one reason 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.400 or the other, either you know, do it alopecia or 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.120 due to cancer therapies or SPA treatments. 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:58.480 Of course, Rob, are you ready to move on to 0:15:58.520 --> 0:15:59.080 the next one. 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:01.160 Yeah, so what do you have for us, Joe? 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:03.920 Okay, I'm gonna be talking about the twenty twenty three 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:09.400 Education Prize which they gave two let's see, it goes 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:14.920 to Katie tam Cyanea Poun, Victoria Huie Winan van Tilberg, 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:20.200 Christy Wong, Vivian Kwong, gigu In and Christian Chan for 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.720 a pair of studies trying to explore the limits of 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:28.680 just how boring school can get. No, I should note 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:33.840 of special relevance to the IGNO Bells themselves. We rarely 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.800 watch the awards ceremony for the Ignoblls, but I think 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.680 they usually upload a video and I've definitely seen some 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.640 of the award ceremonies in the past. Anyway, I recall 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.320 from previous years they have this tradition where when an 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.680 honorees speech is going on too long, you know how 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:50.960 at the Oscars they have the music come in to 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:53.040 play people off. It's like, Okay, that's enough, you know, 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.200 it's time to move on to the next thing. Instead 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.320 of having the Oscar orchestra come in, they have a 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.600 child who walks up and starts whining into the microphone, 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:04.000 saying please stop I'm bored. 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.359 Yeah, And if you want to watch that video or 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.560 get the full list of winners from this year past years, 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:13.119 go to Improbable dot com. 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.159 So this research on boredom is, I think, not as 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.080 hilarious as the Dead Spider hand or some of the 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:24.719 other prodigies in the pure weirdness category that we've covered before. 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.320 But I still think it's pretty clear why the idea 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:32.280 of research on boredom is funny. It seems thematically recursive 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.560 for some reason. The idea of scientifically studying boredom seems 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:42.119 itself incredibly boring and also possibly of trifling consequence to society. 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.600 But I picked this award because I think it's one 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.040 of those subjects where our initial judgments about salience are 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:54.560 totally wrong. I think the psychology of boredom is actually 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.760 a potentially enthralling topic. It's the sort of photo negative 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.159 of the question what are the sorts of experiences that 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:08.040 people find most effortlessly absorbing and why? And what could 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:12.760 be more fascinating than discovering the hidden principles underlying fascination itself. 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.920 It's a good point, and understanding boredom is a really 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.119 important part of that picture. Also, I would argue against 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.840 the intuition that boredom is like a trivial subject or 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.520 something that is not of much societal impact. I think 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:30.440 boredom has huge social consequences, and I want to mention 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:33.320 a couple of ways. Of course, it's true that boredom 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:38.240 has huge consequences in education, where as both of these 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.760 studies note boredom in the classroom is associated with a 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:46.080 range of negative outcomes studies in the past. They go 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.320 over a bunch of these papers in their background sections. 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:51.639 They say, studies in the past have found that being 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:56.159 bored in class is associated with quote lower dedication to learning, 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:02.600 lower effort, lower learning motivation, poorer time management, more attention problems, 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:07.320 and lower class attendance. Extensive evidence has demonstrated a negative 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:12.080 impact of boredom on academic performance, and they cite a 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:14.400 bunch of studies and to back this up. The evidence 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:16.840 is pretty clear being bored in class is not only 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.440 unpleasant for the student, it is not good for educational outcomes. 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.160 But also I think the subject of boredom has broader consequences. 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:30.320 For example, this is not something that these researchers discuss 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:34.639 at all, but I am personally of the opinion that 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:38.359 one of the most poisonous trends brought on by media 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:42.320 technologies like TV and the Internet and social media is 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:47.240 the rise of what I would call an entertainment based epistemology, 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:52.719 a tendency to believe things are true and important simply 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.960 because they hold your interest because they're entertaining or interesting, 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.080 and to assume things are either false or important if 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.639 they bore you. I can't prove this is true, but 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.119 I strongly believe this, and I think this helps explain 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:11.320 a lot of otherwise confounding social phenomena. For example, I 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.359 think I've mentioned this exact idea on the podcast before, 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:20.800 but I think there is a really underappreciated explanation for 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.520 the mass appeal of conspiracy theories, and that is that 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:28.280 they are entertaining. A lot of the popular explanations for 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:33.240 the appeal of conspiracy theories is based in anxieties and 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.439 the need for explanatory closure on ambiguous phenomena, and you know, 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.680 the search for explanations and all that, and I'm sure 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:43.120 those play play a role too, but I personally think 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:48.240 entertainment is like a huge and under explored factor in 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:53.360 what makes these things so popular. A lot of conspiracy 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:59.320 theories offer a fascinating, absorbing, Hollywood style narrative to explain 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.399 something in the world, world, something that is interesting. It 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:07.560 effortlessly holds your attention, when like a more parsimonious explanation 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:10.000 based on evidence would be kind of boring. 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.119 Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. It's so 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:16.960 many of the like even if you don't get in, 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:19.720 even if you are not a conspiracy theorist, if you 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:21.399 would not say that you're a you know, if you 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:23.600 don't follow the boards, you don't actually believe in any 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:27.359 of it. You or they'll say you don't believe in 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:31.720 the various theories and what have you. You can you still 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:34.280 probably find them amusing on some level, at least on 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.399 that Can you believe what these people believe the level 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:39.040 of things you know, or just look at look at 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:42.679 this you know this data, then look how they're interpreting it. 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:45.280 And of course that can, as we've discussed before, like 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:48.560 that can also be kind of a gateway into learning 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.760 more about it and maybe being overwhelmed by some of 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:52.480 the ideas. 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:54.640 I think that's exactly right, and I think it's also 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:58.200 it's more than just what we would call strictly conspiracy theories. 0:21:58.240 --> 0:21:59.920 I think there are generally a lot of people who 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:05.800 just get into highly speculative, highly speculative belief systems with 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.880 a poor basis and evidence, let's call it that. Starting 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:12.480 off just like being kind of like, what's this, I'll 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.320 watch a video. Oh, this is kind of entertaining. But 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.680 as you spend time with ideas, even if you don't 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:22.200 initially believe them, often they will come to become more 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:24.919 appealing to you because you're spending time with them. Almost 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.640 kind of a social reinforcement effect sets in the same 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:31.760 way that when you spend time around people, their beliefs 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:33.560 start seeming more reasonable to you. 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:37.119 Yeah. And also, as we've said before, a lot of 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:40.760 these ideas provide kind of a shortcut to wonder, a 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:48.199 shortcut to individual or cosmic significance. You know, places you 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:50.920 can get to through science through a you know, actual 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:56.719 understanding of of of evolution or or or you know 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:58.840