And here I thought that, as a psychometrician, I was doing real, necessary, important, meaningful research.
Who was I kidding? Here's where it's really at:
Lonely sheep, like lonely people, are much happier when they see pictures of friends and family, according to a study published yesterday. A group at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge has found that the sight of a friendly face reduces stress in sheep.
The discovery, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, could point to the reason that many of us carry pictures of loved ones.
In the case of the sheep, "seeing a face picture of a friend or family member would be the most effective way of reducing separation anxiety", said Prof Keith Kendrick, who led the study...
In the study, Prof Kendrick and colleagues put sheep into a darkened barn on their own and showed them various faces, while recording their behaviour...When the sheep were shown faces of sheep familiar to them, they became less stressed and showed fewer signs of agitation than when they were shown goat faces or triangles. The areas of the brain which control fear and the stress response also showed reduced activation...
Prof Kendrick has found that sheep, while apparently ruminating mindlessly, could be dwelling on long-absent flock mates, mothers or even shepherds.
Oh, man. The dirty jokes just write themselves.
Posted by kswygert at August 25, 2004 02:01 PM