TIPSters--
As long as we (or at least our esteemed colleague Allen) are in the mood to contemplate things holidayish, here's an article from the New York Times chronicling the latest Santa-based research from this year's Ig Nobel Literature Prize winner, John Trinkaus. It's even mildly relevant to psychology ...
For myself, I say:
Plane ticket to visit family: $400
Departmental Secret Santa gift: $20
Gifts for all the people with whom I'm not exchanging gifts, but you have to have a little something to open, after all it's Christmas: $50
Saying "the hell with it, I'm converting to Judaism": Priceless
--Robin
There Is No Joy in Toyville; Mighty Santa�s Striking Out
December 16, 2003
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Dr. John W. Trinkaus is a professor of management as well as a Santa researcher.
So when he makes a list, he checks it twice.
In all three Santa Claus lines he surveyed this season - two in Long Island malls and one in a New York City department store - more than 90 percent of the children were not smiling. On his six-emotion scale, he had to rate them "indifferent" or "hesitant."
"They were poker-faced," he said. "It was `O.K., you want me to do this, I'll do this.' "
He rated 1 percent of the children "terrified." That equaled "exhilarated" and "happy" combined.
So much cynicism and ennui in those so young surprised and saddened Dr. Trinkaus, 78, an emeritus professor at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College in Manhattan.
"Around here, Santa Claus is yesterday's hero," he concluded, expanding
shamelessly but entertainingly on his data. "Christmas is no big deal. In my childhood, you got
toys on Christmas and your birthday, and that was it. Now it's a materialistic society, and you get things year round. No one gets excited."
In his observations this season, he said, the parents at least pretended to be happy, while the Santas "looked kind of beat."
Dr. Trinkaus acknowledged that his research had limitations. For one, he didn't actually interview the children. "I tried to fade into the woodwork," he said. "I don't want to be seen looking at kids too much, or they'll throw me in jail."
And while he tried to measure boredom objectively, the best scale he could find was a set of facial pictures that doctors use to describe children's pain levels.
This kind of survey has long been Dr. Trinkaus's semiserious specialty. Since 1984, he has been publishing brief papers in journals, among them Psychological Reports and Perceptual and Motor
Skills, on subjects like these:
�Are the cars illegally parked in handicapped-only spaces
usually cheap or expensive?
�What percentage of college students wear baseball caps
backward?
�How many shoppers in the "10 Items or Less" line have more
than 10 items?
Earlier this year, this body of work won him an Ignobel Prize in Literature from The Annals of Improbable Research, which awards these satires on the Nobel Prizes each year. It was Marc Abrahams, the Ignobel administrator, who suggested this project, which is published on the Web site of the Annals. Since the research was all post-Thanksgiving, there was no time for peer review, even if Dr. Trinkaus had peers.
He discarded Mr. Abrahams's first suggestion - studying what children asked for - "because I can't get that close without dressing up as an elf," he said.
And what about throwing scientific objectivity to the wind and getting a Santa job?
"No, thank you,"
Dr. Trinkaus replied, emphatically.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/16/health/psychology/16SANT.html?ex=1073127138&ei=1&en=97354d4950b55706
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