Category: News Author : Steven Hodson Posted: June 7, 2009
Tags : points of view, studies, university
You gotta love all these studies that get done on common sense things like cow farts or about men falling asleep after sex. Into that class of common sense studies we can now throw the fact that people do choose to read news that fits their views. Well, Duh!
Not happy with the fact that the idea has been long considered textbook or just plain common sense researchers at the University of Ohio decided to prove it with an honest to God study. Their findings?
News readers gorge on media messages that fit their pre-existing views, rather than graze on a wider range of perspectives. In other words, they consume what they agree with, researchers say.
The finding comes out of a recent study which tracked how college students spent their time reading media articles on hot-button issues such as abortion or gun ownership.
Unsurprisingly, students gravitated toward articles that supported their views.
Source: Live Science
The numbers broke down something like this
- participants spent 36 percent more time reading articles that agreed with their point of view
- participants had a 58 percent chance of choosing articles that supported their views
- participants had a 43 percent chance of choosing an article that challenged their view
Okay, now that we have that all cleared up can we get back to this thing about cow farts ‘cause I’m sure there is some more money we could waste on this one.
Jun 7, 2009
What's surprising is how many of us don't seem to have the common-sense gene in our genetic make-up. So, it can be helpful to actually have some research to point to. Here's a couple of recent sudies that prove the obvious.
Who doesn't know that you shouldn't let kids drink coffee because of the caffeine? Italian doctors issued an international warning last week about kids being susceptible to caffeine. Because of their “caffeine naivety,” they haven't built up any tolerance and can quickly develop “caffeine intoxication” –dangerous and can kill you. A 13-year-old kid in Naples was hospitalized because he went and chewed two packets of stimulant chewing gum.
The second pediatric study also involved kids and caffeine. The surprising finding — teens who consume a lot of caffeinated products (like NOS energy drink with almost 1,200 mg caffeine in one can) stay wired in the evening, don't wind down and don't sleep for hours. Another surprise — these kids fall asleep in school the next day. Duh!
Ethic Soup blog has a good article about both of these research studies about teens and caffeine at:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/06/teens-and-caff…