Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!wuarchive!swbatl!texbell!sugar!ficc!jeffd From: jeffd@ficc.uu.net (Jeff Daiell) Newsgroups: news.groups Subject: Re: Thumbs-up for conspicuous absence Message-ID: Date: 15 Feb 90 14:41:26 GMT References: <1028@philmtl.philips.ca> Organization: FICC [but opinions my own!] Lines: 53 In article <1028@philmtl.philips.ca>, ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Ray Dunn) writes: >[uptight discomfiture with goodwill and humor deleted] Perpend: From WORLD PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW, Vol. XXII, No. 11 (March 2nd, 1987): GET THEE TO A PUNNERY by Arthur L. Moore, Ph.D.[1]; Joan Glazer, M.D.[2]; C. D. Miller, M.D.[1]; Felicia A. Robertson, M.D.[1]; Janos Hrulka, M.S.W.[3]; Carla Bell, Ph.D.[2]; Bryan O'Malley, R.N.[2] Do punsters, as a bumpersticker might claim, make better lovers? Maybe so, maybe not -- but they certainly tend to be more intelligent, more mature, more pleasant, and more literate than their non-punning counterparts. Over a period of seventy-eight months, two groups were studied by the authors (with the assistance of eleven post-doctoral students). 648 individuals who punned constantly, and 672 persons who never punned, comprised the respective groups. [methodology section deleted] The results surprised the authors. The punning subjects consistently got along better with others in *all* aspects of their lives: work, neighborhood, family, and other interactions. Their IQs were an average of 6.31 points higher. Their MMPIs were consistently healthier. Their educational level was higher -- and, more tellingly in these days of inept governmental schools, members of the punning group did better on standardized tests administered by the authors and their assistants. They also were better able to read and interpret articles in: (a) a daily newspaper; (2) scientific journals; (3) news digests geared toward college graduates. Interviews with associates of members of the two groups indicated that the punsters were clearly more mature than their non-punning analogs. Do you wish an environment preferable to the one you now inhabit? Would you like, to express it bluntly, a better grade of person around you? Then, as any of the members of our better-scoring group would likely express it, "Get thee to a punnery, go!" -30- [1] Johns Hopkins University Department of Psychiatry and Neurology. [2] The Mayo Clinic. [3] Stanford University Medical Center Division of Psychosocial Aspects of Health Care. ---------- Jeff Daiell Note: the above is presented in jest. -- Thank you for not coercing.