Guns, hot sauce and testosterone a spicy mix
In 2006, researchers at Knox College in Illinois performed a study on college men ages 18 to 22. Here’s how the study abstract reads:
“We tested whether interacting with a gun increased testosterone levels and later aggressive behavior. Thirty male college students provided a saliva sample (for testosterone assay), interacted with either a gun or a children’s toy for 15 min, and then provided another saliva sample. Next, subjects added as much hot sauce as they wanted to a cup of water they believed another subject would have to drink. Males who interacted with the gun showed significantly greater increases in testosterone and added more hot sauce to the water than did those who interacted with the children’s toy.”
The men were told that they were being studied to determine whether paying close attention to a task altered their later sensitivity to taste. They were tested for initial testosterone levels, and half were then asked to dismantle and reassemble the old “Mousetrap” game, writing a set of instructions on how to do so.
Desert Eagle handgun
The other half were asked to do the same with a pellet pistol, an exact replica in size and weight of a Desert Eagle handgun. Finally, after being tested again for testosterone, they were given a glass of water and bottle of hot sauce and asked to prepare a “sample” for the next study subject.
According to a description of the study at WebMD:
This hot-sauce trick has been used before. The more aggressive a man is feeling, the more hot sauce he tends to put in the next guy’s drink.
Sure enough, testosterone went up about 100 times more in the men who handled the gun than in the men who handled the children’s toy. And the gun handlers put three times more hot sauce in the water — on average, about a half ounce — than the toy handlers.
The more a man’s testosterone went up after gun handling, the more hot sauce he put in the water.
And since a story like this just wouldn’t be the same without a chart:
Make of it what you will. I report; you decide. But as we’ve seen, the good people at Bushmaster have already made their decision:
– Jay Bookman
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516 comments Add your comment
barking frog
January 18th, 2013
9:18 am
Either wordpress or the ajc have once again boinked the blog.
GT
January 18th, 2013
9:21 am
Thulsa Doom what do you think is different from the south and the rest of the country? We got a lot of mucho down here, like the banditos in Mexico, and both places are in fact economically depressed. Nothing to do with pop psychology, there is a reality.
Have you ever noticed the deeper south you get the poorer the educational institutions. Virginia has UVA and W&L, North Carolina has Duke and UNC, South Carolina has Furman and as we drip further south we get dryer and dryer on schools. Atlanta does have Emory, but check out the student body, mostly northern kids that couldn’t get into a good school up there so they came down here where the competition is easier.
But Thulsa we have football! Can’t buy a poor kid a good lunch but we spend billions on something that I couldn’t even tell you who won the championship five years later. You ever follow up on these football heroes? Then follow up on someone who has had a good education which doesn’t exist down south. Which one you think last longer the football or the education? Makes you wonder where our priorities are doesn’t it. No pop in any of this just sad truth.
Granny Godzilla
January 18th, 2013
9:27 am
Thulsa
I know you are smarter than that.
What good will it do?
It might save 1 life. Maybe more.
Neither of us knows, but apparently only one of us has the character to be willing to try.
godless heathen
January 18th, 2013
9:28 am
The real shocking news of the day is that a foot-long Subway sammich, may not actually be 12″ long. Did they have a woman estimate the foot-long length or what?
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2013
9:31 am
“We got a lot of mucho down here, like the banditos in Mexico”
Is that something that can be empirically measured? Or is that just your unsubstantiated opinion?
“Can’t buy a poor kid a good lunch…
Your empty rhetoric is getting stale. We have food stamp programs of which 47 million people benefit. And on top of that if a kid is poor we have free breakfast and free lunch programs at school. Try again.
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2013
9:33 am
Granny Godzilla,
Its a pretty straightforward question. If the proposed law before us now were in effect before the Newtown massacre how would this law have prevented the massacre? Or even the severity of it?
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2013
9:39 am
Barking frog,
Now you’re talking. But how would the law have denied the shooter access to the victims?
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2013
9:41 am
Granny Godzilla,
It has nothing to do with character. And btw trying to suggest that you have character and I don’t because you are willing to pass any law regardless of whether it works or not only diminishes your character. Why? Because you used a disagreement as a basis to take a shot at my character. Not cool.
moonbat betty
January 18th, 2013
9:48 am
Yes, I posted that Doom’s fists should be considered “deadly weapons”.
I apologize for posting that, Doom.
I didn’t know the libs were going to go all postal on you for it.
IT WAS A JOKE, people!
Anyone have a problem with it, take it up with me, not Doom.
Man, it’s funny to rub these cats the wrong way
stands for decibels
January 18th, 2013
9:51 am
Well if you’re going to lie then lie big.
oh my god–I just realized, you are actually complaining about this, that I’d posted earlier?
I dunno, think I saw something where he was reduced to claiming that his fists were registered as a legal weapon…
That rises to the level of “lie?” a big one?
If you’re actually on the level with this–you’ve hereby surrendered the right to ANY future accusations of humorlessness among others.
If you could actually take something seriously that begins with “I dunno,” and is so off-handed that I didn’t bother to fix an obvious typo, you are way too full of yourself.
Way way way double-plus way too full.
/headin’ upstairs.
moonbat betty
January 18th, 2013
9:54 am
GT,
Arrogant much?
Look at the population of the Northeast vs. states in the Southeast.
Where are the Ivy league schools in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, etc, etc, etc.?
geez…
moonbat betty
January 18th, 2013
9:58 am
sfd, they would be registered as “Lethal” weapons, not “Legal” weapons if he were to register them
stands for decibels
January 18th, 2013
10:04 am
“Lethal” weapons, not “Legal” weapons
MB, that was the “obvious typo” I referred to @ 9.51, actually.
And when it comes to weaponry (real, imagined, software or hardware) claims on these threads, I assume everything is open to parody/ridicule.
moonbat betty
January 18th, 2013
10:12 am
lol, yes it is, sfd.
Onward!
or is it Forward!?
That Black Guy
January 18th, 2013
2:00 pm
Travis McGee
January 18th, 2013
7:38 am
I have had an hypothesis for quite some time that those who insist on carrying concealed have small penises and have to have a gun in their pockets to feel something hard. Perhaps the good people at Knox College could engage in some research project to prove or disprove my hypothesis.
_____________________________
2 things:
1) If someone is carrying a concealed weapon, chances are it’s in a holster, NOT their pocket.
2) Why have you spent so much time thinking about other men’s pen!s size (personal issues you need to confront?)
Josiah
January 23rd, 2013
4:00 pm
The best type of medication so far is the replacement of the T known as T replacement therapy. By the fulfilling the low range, we are able to achieve very good result. There are many methods for T replacement therapy for example: injection, gel, pills, patches and tablets.