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- And now, academic studies showing
super weird correlations.
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Hold it.
Hold it.
A study from 2011 found
that people who are holding
a full bladder are better
at delaying gratification
and making long term
decisions about money.
The researchers chalked it
up to inhibitory spillover.
If you're in the process
of resisting one urge,
you're better at controlling
other urges as well.
This must be a big help in
places with pay-per-use toilets.
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Okay, what's the one movie
genre that goes out of its way
to show conspicuous tipping?
Mafia movies, right?
A 2012 Harvard study found
that around the world
countries with greater
tipping behavior also have
more problems with political
corruption, like bribery.
The authors guessed that
this might be due to
what's called a "Perspective Orientation".
Not so much tipping as reward
but tipping to influence
future behavior like
"One day, I may call upon you
to perform a service for me."
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A 2007 study of the British
Journal of Psychology turned up
this bizarre fact: boys with a higher
ring-to-index finger ratio
had higher SAT math scores.
At the same time girls with a lower
ring-to-index finger ratio
had higher verbal scores.
The researcher said this
might be because both factors,
relative finger length and
math versus verbal aptitude,
are influenced by the
amounts of testosterone and
estrogen you receive way
back in your mother's womb.
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The longer you spend in traffic
everyday the less likely
you are you are to stay
up-to-date on politics.
Maybe it has something to do with having
less leisure time or more stress.
But it applies to everyone
with one weird exception,
the super rich.
For the very wealthy,
the longer they commute,
the more they were engaged.
Maybe commutes by private jet counted.
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Okay it's a little more nuanced than that,
a study published in 2009
found that modern texts on
ethics and morality
were 50% more likely to
go missing from libraries
than all other books.
The investigators suggested,
ethics students may be more
likely to rationalize their behavior.
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Can't get rid of the hiccups?
Well in 1990, healthcare
providers in Israel reported one
really great remedy, a
digital rectal massage.
Supposedly, this works because
the nerves controlling
hiccups, like the vagus nerve,
are also connected to the
G.I. tract, supposedly.
Got a favorite bizarre
correlation discovered by science?
Let us know in the comments
and subscribe so you
won't miss our next video.
And to learn about even more
bizarre correlations in science?
Check out our article
on howstuffworks.com.
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