On a date – listen to romantic music

So says a new French study anyway.  They reveal that listening to romantic music is more likely to result in a successful date.

http://pom.sagepub.com/content/38/3/303.abstract

An experiment was carried out where 18—20-year-old single female participants were exposed to romantic lyrics or to neutral ones while waiting for the experiment to start. Five minutes later, the participant interacted with a young male confederate in a marketing survey. During a break, the male confederate asked the participant for her phone number. It was found that women previously exposed to romantic lyrics complied with the request more readily than women exposed to the neutral ones.

How happy are your friends?

The contagious nature of disease has long been known as illness spreads throughout a social network, but new research suggests that this isn’t the only thing that’s contagious.

Data in the research, in the July 7 Proceedings of the Royal Society, comes from the Framingham Heart Study, a one-of-a-kind project which since 1948 has regularly collected social and medical information from thousands of people in Framingham, Massachusetts.

The research finds that the chances of you being happy increases by 0.02% for each happy person you know, whilst your chances of being sad increase by 0.04% for each unhappy person you know.

Is it statistically significant? How happy are your friends?