Some bits of frivolous/unnecessary research.

The personality quiz in the Observer newspaper usually asks a couple of questions and defines your personality according to the answers. Today it didn't really do personality so much as life circumstances, asking if your income and your wellbeing are related. So it asked which salary band you fit into from £11k (bottom 20% of the UK) to ££36k (top 20%) which seemed quite a low total for the top 20%. It then asked how often each day you experience feelings of happiness, enthusiasm or satisfaction and, on the other hand, how often you notice feelings of anger, frustration, sadness and worry,

It turns out that your earnings makes very little difference to how often you are likely to experience positive emotions. However, the higher your salary, the less likely you are to experience those negative emotions of anger frustration, sadness and worry. There's a surprise; the more you earn the less likely you are to be worried about such things as paying your bills or feeding your family and so you are less likely to feel angry, frustrated or sad. It all makes sense; if you earn plenty you are not so likely to have to worry about how to pay the rent and feed the family. Conclusion: money can't buy you happiness but it can, and often does, buy the absence of sadness.

I could have told them that without their having to do a great big research project on it!

Here's another bit of research that's been going on. They gave a group of people a story to tell which involved them telling a lie either by email or over the phone, and then they gave them a random list of groceries and toiletries from which they had to choose items to put in a virtual basket. Those who had written a lie tended to choose to include handwash in their basket while those who has spoken a lie chose mouthwash. There's a creepy thing. Shakespeare knew about this already; after all he made Lady Macbeth keep on washing her hands after committing murder.

It's a funny old world!

Nearly as funny as the fashion page in the Sunday magazine. This featured an outfit which went as follows:

Hat         £225
Coat       £2,150
Dress     £1,750
Corset   £455 - this was a "corset" worn on the outside, not as an undergarment.
Belt        £280
Pink agenda         £305
Off-white agenda £215  - I always thought an agenda was a list of items to be discussed at a meeting but here it seemed to mean a diary or organiser, as in some other European languages. So why does the model need two?
Tortoiseshell key charm  £195
Key charm       £180
Boots              £1,070
Tights           £535

That's well over £7000 for one day's clothes, without asking what her undies cost! Even bearing in mind that she will wear each item more than once, it's still a silly amount of money.