Stress makes us work harder for pleasurable rewards, but doesn't make us appreciate them more

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I believe that headline was supposed to be “Stress makes us work harder for pleasurable rewards…”

…but I’m fine with the current version. :smiling_imp:

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Ah, I missed it. Was it wank?

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I used my powers to add “work” to the headline, so @Tynam’s comment was both addressed and invalidated. I really don’t understand the reasoning behind this curious ability.

I’m changing it back.

ETA: Yes, it was wank.

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Hard for Pleasure … I’m pretty sure I saw them on a double bill once opening for Lords of Acid … /jk

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Let’s talk more about that stock photo of “frightened girl in the stress and flying around the burgers on a red background”, please!

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36 university students.

This study wasn’t designed with remotely enough statistical power to draw any valid conclusions.

It might be interesting to design a relevant study with blinding and controls and a reasonably sized n in order to confirm whether or not this phenomenon actually exists.

This type of work doesn’t belong in the popular press. It’s pretty much half a step above conjecture, and does a lot of harm by essentially reporting research very prematurely.

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“Study demonstrates that if you call it a study, it’ll be treated as having scientific validity even by people who should bloody well know better.”

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But this blog post had plenty of statistical power?

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This comment only gives us an N of 10. So we’re pretty underpowered to form an opinion ourselves :smiley:

Does not seem to have slowed you (and the mouse in your pocket) down, but it should slow us down?

You can’t know things without the proper evidence, not in any valid sense anyway. And a preliminary study with a few dozen participants total isn’t exactly a gold-standard piece of evidence. It’s not good for our largely science illiterate public to be offered up exploratory and preliminary research as if it’s cutting edge and rigorous. I wouldn’t say keeping them in the dark is the best option, but it’s a long war against those who would teach creationism alongside science in the high schools, and we should fight for better science journalism as well as better teaching.

C’mon, look at the positive side. The journo who wrote the article listed the size of the sample. That’s a good beginning.

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