Meat Keeps Holiday Guests Calm

If you haven't noticed in the past years of your entire life, everyone gets a little antsy during the holiday season. Whether it's finding parking, Christmas shopping, or grocery shopping for big holiday dinners, people are a little more nuts than usual. Sometimes I wonder why we can't all calm down a little, but I'm probably hypocritically plowing through an aisle of toys while wondering said thought. Thanks to researchers (or people who are eternally curious about other people) and just in time for the biggest dinner party coming up in a few weeks, research suggests that meat actually makes us less aggressive. (Sorry vegetarians! Be warned that there will be lots of pictures of meat).

5x7 English Bulldog Thanksgiving Card by snowy4052002

Researchers at McGill University were curious as to whether seeing images of meat would trigger our inner aggressive cavemen, so they conducted a study using three groups of undergrad males who were told to be participating in a "multi-tasking"experiment.

Detailed Lamb Butcher Diagram by drywell

Each group was asked to sort through various pictures of either raw (ready-to-cook) meat, guns, or geometric shapes, while evaluating another participant reciting a script. The script-reciting participant was secretly asked to "accidentally forget" their lines a total number of six times. The picture-sorting participant was told to administer a "tone blast" (or basically a loud sound) that ranged from "barely noticeable" to "very painful." Of course, to protect the ears of the script-reciters, the "tone blast" was a dummy, but the picture-sorter didn't know that.

Roast Beef Ready for the oven by SchickieMickieMinis

Surprisingly, the results showed that people were significantly less likely to blast the reciters when they saw pictures of raw meat. The tone blasts they chose were also less painful than those in the geometric shape group or the gun group. Maybe seeing pictures of meat makes our inner cavemen relax and calm down knowing there's no need to go out hunting :)

Keep Calm and Eat Bacon by KeepCalmShop

If looking at raw meat calms everyone down, imagine if malls filled their windows and walls with pictures of cooked meat- baked turkey, roasted chicken, smoked ham, mmmm. Perhaps we wouldn't get much shopping done because we'd head to the food court. But next time, if you're worried about antsy house guests or tense dinner events, hang some pictures of meat around the room, or just have a plate of pigs-in-a-blanket on the table! (Read the entire article at The Body Odd).

Yeah, these are for dogs...
Rollies Pigs In a Blanket Dog Treats by MyPooperScooper