Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2024
Can a fake medicine work better if it stings?
How side effects can improve treatment efficacy: a randomized trial (2024)
Psychology
Your wonderful brain, explained.
Animals
Do bumblebees play football just for fun?
Do bumble bees play? (2022)
Animals
Why do dogs tilt their heads when you talk to them?
An exploratory analysis of head-tilting in dogs (2022)
✦ Ig Nobel 2022
Why is the small print so hard to read?
Poor writing, not specialized concepts, drives processing difficulty in legal language (2022)
Animals
Will a cat sit in a square that isn’t really there?
If I fits I sits: A citizen science investigation into illusory contour susceptibility in domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) (2021)
✦ Ig Nobel 2023
What happens if you write the same word over and over?
The the the the induction of jamais vu in the laboratory: word alienation and semantic satiation (2021)
Animals
Does your cat know its own name?
Domestic cats (Felis catus) discriminate their names from other words (2019)
Pop Culture
Is there a Pokémon-shaped spot in your brain?
Extensive childhood experience with Pokémon suggests eccentricity drives organization of visual cortex (2019)
Animals
Can rats play hide-and-seek?
Behavioral and neural correlates of hide-and-seek in rats (2019)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2018
Who copies who at the chimpanzee enclosure?
Spontaneous cross-species imitation in interactions between chimpanzees and zoo visitors (2018)
Animals
Can goats tell when you’re smiling?
Goats prefer positive human emotional facial expressions (2018)
Tech ✦ Ig Nobel 2022
Is success down to talent or luck?
Talent versus luck: The role of randomness in success and failure (2018)
Animals
Can sheep recognise celebrities?
Sheep recognize familiar and unfamiliar human faces from two-dimensional images (2017)
Medicine
Is “man flu” actually real?
The science behind “man flu” (2017)
MedicineAnimals ✦ Ig Nobel 2019
Can you train surgeons like dolphins?
Is Teaching Simple Surgical Skills Using an Operant Learning Program More Effective Than Teaching by Demonstration? (2016)
MedicineFood ✦ Ig Nobel 2017
What does cheese hate look like inside your brain?
The Neural Bases of Disgust for Cheese: An fMRI Study (2016)
Pop CultureMedicine
Is there a Christmas spirit hiding in your brain?
Evidence of a Christmas spirit network in the brain: functional MRI study (2015)
Food
Why does tomato juice taste so good on a plane?
A crossmodal role for audition in taste perception (2015)
✦ Ig Nobel 2016
At what age are people best at fibbing?
From junior to senior Pinocchio: A cross-sectional lifespan investigation of deception (2015)
✦ Ig Nobel 2017
Can identical twins tell themselves apart in photos?
Is that me or my twin? Lack of self-face recognition advantage in identical twins (2015)
Pop Culture
Can reading Harry Potter make you kinder?
The greatest magic of Harry Potter: Reducing prejudice (2015)
Pop Culture
Are cartoons secretly more tragic than grown-up films?
CARTOONS KILL: casualties in animated recreational theater in an objective observational new study of kids’ introduction to loss of life (2014)
Would you rather zap yourself than sit and think?
Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind (2014)
TechPop Culture
Are some scientists more famous than their research?
The Kardashian index: a measure of discrepant social media profile for scientists (2014)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2014
Why do we see faces in our toast?
Seeing Jesus in toast: Neural and behavioral correlates of face pareidolia (2014)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2013
Does thinking you’ve had a drink make you feel prettier?
“Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder”: People who think they are drunk also think they are attractive (2013)
✦ Ig Nobel 2015
Is “huh?” the same in every language?
Is “Huh?” a universal word? Conversational infrastructure and the convergent evolution of linguistic items (2013)
Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2016
Can you scratch an itch by looking in a mirror?
Itch relief by mirror scratching. A psychophysical study (2013)
Medicine
Is laughter really the best medicine?
Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical Investigation of Risibility, Therapeutic and Harmful): narrative synthesis (2013)
Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2020
Why do chewing sounds drive some people up the wall?
Misophonia: diagnostic criteria for a new psychiatric disorder (2013)
FoodMedicine
Does chocolate win Nobel Prizes?
Chocolate consumption, cognitive function, and Nobel laureates (2012)
Food
Does the colour of your mug change how a drink tastes?
The influence of the color of the cup on consumers’ perception of a hot beverage (2012)
Why do we love the wonky shelf we built ourselves?
The IKEA effect: When labor leads to love (2012)
Animals
Can looking at kittens make you better at your job?
The power of kawaii: Viewing cute images promotes a careful behavior and narrows attentional focus (2012)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2014
What do reindeer do when a polar bear turns out to be a scientist?
Response behaviors of Svalbard reindeer towards humans and humans disguised as polar bears on Edgeøya (2012)
Food
Does your spoon change how food tastes?
Tasting spoons: Assessing how the material of a spoon affects the taste of the food (2012)
Pop Culture
What would a psychiatrist make of Anakin Skywalker?
Is Anakin Skywalker suffering from borderline personality disorder? (2011)
✦ Ig Nobel 2012
Does leaning to the left make the Eiffel Tower shrink?
Leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller: Posture-modulated estimation (2011)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2011
Do tortoises catch yawns?
No evidence of contagious yawning in the red-footed tortoise Geochelone carbonaria (2011)
AnimalsTech ✦ Ig Nobel 2012
Can a fish from the shop show brain activity?
Neural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic Salmon: an argument for proper multiple comparisons correction (2010)
Tech ✦ Ig Nobel 2010
Would companies run better if promotions were random?
The Peter principle revisited: A computational study (2010)
Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2010
Does saying “ouch” really make it hurt less?
Swearing as a response to pain (2009)
Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2008
Does a fake pill work better if it’s expensive?
Commercial features of placebo and therapeutic efficacy (2008)
✦ Ig Nobel 2011
What does a sigh really mean?
Is a sigh “just a sigh”? Sighs as emotional signals and responses to a difficult task (2008)
Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2010
Can a rollercoaster ride make you feel less breathless?
Rollercoaster asthma: when positive emotional stress interferes with dyspnea perception (2007)
Medicine
What do strangers shout at people on unicycles?
Sex, aggression, and humour: responses to unicycling (2007)
✦ Ig Nobel 2006
Do big words make you sound smart?
Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly (2006)
✦ Ig Nobel 2016
Does the world look different from between your legs?
Perceived size and perceived distance of targets viewed from between the legs: Evidence for proprioceptive theory (2006)
FoodMedicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2007
Would you notice if your soup never ran out?
Bottomless bowls: why visual cues of portion size may influence intake (2005)
Medicine
Can clowns make surgery less scary for kids?
Clown doctors as a treatment for preoperative anxiety in children: a randomized, prospective study (2005)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2006
Can rats tell Dutch from Japanese?
Effects of backward speech and speaker variability in language discrimination by rats (2005)
Pop CultureAnimals
Does wearing red help you win?
Red enhances human performance in contests (2005)
Medicine
Where do all the office teaspoons go?
The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute (2005)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2008
Can a louder crunch make crisps taste fresher?
The role of auditory cues in modulating the perceived crispness and staleness of potato chips (2004)
Pop CultureFood
Would kids pick a toy over sweets on Halloween?
Trick, treat, or toy: children are just as likely to choose toys as candy on Halloween (2003)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2003
Do chickens think you’re pretty?
Chickens prefer beautiful humans (2002)
Food
Can a drop of food dye fool a wine expert’s nose?
The color of odors (2001)
Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2003
Do London cabbies have bigger brains?
Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers (2000)
Pop CultureMedicine
What would a doctor make of Winnie-the-Pooh?
Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A.A. Milne (2000)
Animals
Do rats laugh when you tickle them?
50-kHz chirping (laughter?) in response to conditioned and unconditioned tickle-induced reward in rats: effects of social housing and genetic variables (2000)
Pop Culture
Does everyone notice your embarrassing T-shirt?
The spotlight effect in social judgment: An egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance (2000)
Why can’t you tickle yourself?
Why can’t you tickle yourself? (2000)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2004
Could you miss a gorilla walking right past you?
Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events (1999)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2022
How many fingers do you use to turn a knob?
How to use fingers during rotary control of columnar knobs (1999)
✦ Ig Nobel 2000
Why are the least skilled people often the most confident?
Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments (1999)
Medicine
Do doctors really have the worst handwriting?
The truth about doctors’ handwriting: a prospective study (1996)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 1995
Can a pigeon tell Monet from Picasso?
Pigeons’ discrimination of paintings by Monet and Picasso (1995)
✦ Ig Nobel 2019
Can a pen in your teeth make cartoons funnier?
Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis (1988)
Animals
Can you stop yourself thinking about a white bear?
Paradoxical effects of thought suppression (1987)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2006
Why are nails on a chalkboard so awful?
Psychoacoustics of a chilling sound (1986)
Food
Why do we learn to love spicy food?
The nature and acquisition of a preference for chili pepper by humans (1980)
What does a paper about writer’s block look like?
The unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of “writer’s block” (1974)
✦ Ig Nobel 2023
If a crowd stares up at nothing, will you look too?
Note on the drawing power of crowds of different size (1969)
Food
Can spilling coffee make you more likeable?
The effect of a pratfall on increasing interpersonal attractiveness (1966)