Wow. I am going to be MEGA busy over the next few weeks! New projects I’ve been selected for:
…and I continue to work on the shea butter manuscript, as well as ongoing copyediting for Leon Goltsman and his self-help website, The Art of More. Oh and editorial assistance for BioMed Central. Phew.
Last week, thanks to Twitter, I found out that the British Psychological Society were holding their annual conference this week at the Holiday Inn in Stratford upon Avon, a mere 15 minutes’ drive from my new abode here in the (Warwick)Shire. What’s more, they were holding a free public lecture to kick start it all off. Science on my doorstep? Hurrah! Usually one has to trot off down to That London for such things!
I must admit, I expected a bigger crowd than the twenty or thirty people who turned up this evening, and I think that most of those in attendance were delegates of the conference. I guess the rest of Stratford, being famous for Shakespeare, doesn’t get as enthused about Science as I do…Shame.
Our speakers for the evening were Adrian North from Heriot Watt University and David Hargreaves from Roehampton University, colleagues for over 15 years in the field of music psychology. Through fascinating research anecdotes, coupled with musical interludes, the audience was given an insight into the association between human behaviour, consumerism and the power of music.
Music is played in shops, restaurants, high streets, when we’re “on hold” on the phone, and even in Glastonbury portaloos, but have you ever wondered what purpose it serves? Many people have – piped music in shops and on customer service helplines are often complained about. There is even an anti-piped music pressure group called “Pipe Down” and Chas and Dave, the popular folk musicians, once declared that they would ban piped music in pubs if they were elected as Mayors of London in 2000.
Research has shown that music can be a very powerful influencer on our behaviour. In 1982, Milliman found that when slow music was played in a supermarket, people spent 15% longer in the shop than when fast music was played, and as a result of this extra browsing time, they spent 33% more money. Similarly, in restaurants, when fast music is played, diners tend to eat fewer courses and eat more quickly; when slower music is played, more food is eaten and more time is taken. This is a tactic actually used by some restaurants to increase table turnaround time during busy periods and to encourage people to stay longer during the quiet times.
It’s not just the speed of music that has an effect on our behaviour. The type of music played can also send subliminal messages that cause us to think differently about the products we buy and the establishments we frequent. In 1993, Areni and Kim discovered that people bought more expensive bottles of wine at a wine cellar when classical music was played – Mozart, it seemed, gave the cellar a sense of quality and upper class that not felt when pop music was played instead. Similarly, from North and Hargreaves’ own research, more French wine was bought in a Leicestershire supermarket when shoppers were subjected to stereotypically French music, and more German wine was bought when a lederhosen ditty was played.
Given the powerful effects that music can have on our mood, it is somewhat surprising that some companies get it very wrong. If we’re calling our electricity supplier to give a meter reading or phoning the bank to set up a direct debit, we just want to get it done; we don’t want to listen to a crackly recording of “Greensleeves” or Rod Stewart’s pan-pipe classics. However, “on hold” music may be deliberately chosen to be annoying, since it can be a distraction from the wait. Similarly, calming mood music can relax us so that we are less likely to yell at the operator about why they got our gas bill wrong!
Dr. North regaled us with many other lively excerpts from this intriguing area of psychology while Professor Hargreaves showcased his musical talents by demonstrating the different types of music that we are subjected to every time we shop. Interestingly, the only music that shoppers seem to have no strong feelings about are Elvis Presley and The Beatles, even when covered in a muzak style! Clearly, even though we don’t always realise it, music can be an important psychological tool. The right music, or even the wrong music, rather than just being an inert soundtrack to our shopping trips, can actually affect our moods, our behaviours and even the choices we make.
…handling manuscripts for BioMed Central, writing an article for BioMed Central’s staff magazine, The Word, copyediting a book on the “Science of Shea Butter” and copyediting a website on the subject of arthritis. It’s a busy month! I will also try to write a few more blog posts and if anyone needs a hand with copyediting or proofreading anything sciencey – research papers, websites, books and whatnot, please do get in touch!
Before you start thinking that I might as well have just written as my title, “Blue crumpet jumps around miniature splodge”, or something equally jabberwocky, let me explain.
Researchers at the University of Hanoi, Vietnam, have been studying ancient remedies and their most recent work has been upon the plant Cibotium barometz, otherwise known as the Vegetable Lamb. Why is it called this? Because scientists of the 16th and 17th Centuries, clearly very learned folk, believed that the plant’s fruit ripened into a live baby sheep, which would then nibble on the weeds around the plant (of course).
Hopefully it hasnt taken them several hundred years to work out that this metamorphosis is impossible, but what they have been finding out is that the rhizomes of the plant, which have been eaten for centuries by Vietnamese hill tribes to ward off rheumatic disorders, may prove useful in the treatment of the brittle bone disease osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis, which affects millions of people around the world, has several causes, but is characterised by an imbalance in the activity of two key cell types: osteoblasts that build bone, and osteoclasts that break down bone. When osteoclast activity outruns osteoblast activity, the calcium in bones can become depleted, leading to weak, brittle bones that are prone to breakage and crumbling.
Dr. Young Ho Kim and his team have identified several compounds found in the Vegetable Lamb plant that, in cultured cells, block the activity of osteoclasts by up to 97%. While still in the very early stages of experimentation, this is a potentially very exciting discovery that could have important implications for the future of osteoporosis treatment and drug development.
Reference: Cuong NG et al., Inhibitors of osteoclast formation from rhizomes of Cibotum barometz, J. Nat. Prod., 2009, 72 (9), pp 1673–1677
Press release: Fabled ‘vegetable lamb’ plant contains potential treatment for osteoporosis
Lisa A. Martin - Freelance science copywriter/editor 