Laws of physics, math debunk Hollywood portrayals of ghosts, vampires

As the weather cools and Halloween approaches, chilling creaks in the stairs, bloodcurdling screams from the attic and other paranormal activity become more believable -- but not to UCF physics professor Costas Efthimiou.

The laws of physics and math debunk popular myths about ghosts and vampires, according to a paper published by Efthimiou and Sohang Gandhi, a UCF graduate now studying at Cornell University.

Using Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion, Efthimiou demonstrates that ghosts would not be able to walk and pass through walls. Basic math disproves the legend of humans turning into vampires after they are bitten, Efthimiou explains, because the entire human population in 1600 would have been wiped out in less than three years.

"These popular myths make for a lot of Halloween fun and great movies with special effects, but they just don't hold up to the strict tests of science," Efthimiou said.

In movies such as "Ghost," starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, ghosts often walk like humans, pass through walls and pick up objects. But that portrayal cannot be accurate, Efthimiou says. For ghosts to have the ability to walk like humans, they would need to put a force upon the floor, which would exert an equal and opposite force in return. But ghosts' ability to pass through walls and have humans walk right through them demonstrates that they cannot apply any force.

Movies such as "Blade," featuring Wesley Snipes, suggest that vampires feed on human blood and that once a human has been bitten, he or she turns into a vampire and begins feeding on other humans. To disprove the existence of vampires, Efthimiou relied on a basic math principle known as geometric progression.

Efthimiou supposed that the first vampire arrived Jan. 1, 1600, when the human population was 536,870,911. Assuming that the vampire fed once a month and the victim turned into a vampire, there would be two vampires and 536,870,910 humans on Feb. 1. There would be four vampires on March 1 and eight on April 1. If this trend continued, all of the original humans would become vampires within two and a half years and the vampires' food source would disappear.

Efthimiou did not take into consideration mortality rates, which would have increased the speed at which the human population would have been vanquished. And even factoring in a birth rate would not change the outcome.

"In the long run, humans cannot survive under these conditions, even if our population were doubling each month," Efthimiou said. "And doubling is clearly way beyond the human capacity of reproduction."

Efthimiou also provides a practical explanation for "voodoo zombiefication," which suggests that zombies "come about by a voodoo hex being placed by a sorcerer on one of his enemies." He reviewed the case of a Haitian adolescent who was pronounced dead by a local doctor after a week of dramatic convulsions.

After the boy was buried, he returned in an incoherent state, and Haitians pronounced that a sorcerer had raised him from the dead in the state of a zombie.

Science, however, has a less-supernatural explanation. A highly-toxic substance called tetrodotoxin is found in a breed of puffer fish native to Haitian waters. Contact with this substance generally results in a rapid death. However, in some cases, the right dose of the toxin will result in a state that mimics death and slows vital signs to a level that is unable to be measured. Eventually, the victim snaps out of the death-like coma and returns to his or her regular condition.

Scientific analysis has shown that oxygen deprivation is consistent with the boy's brain damage and his incoherent state.

"It would seem that zombiefication is nothing more than a skillful act of poisoning," Efthimiou said.

23 October 2006
University of Central Florida

The news media seriously underreport the role alcohol plays in violent crimes, injuries and traffic accidents, according to a new national study. While alcohol is believed to play a role in about one-third of homicides and fatal motor vehicle accidents, media reports linked alcohol to specific accidents or crimes significantly less frequently.

Some of the largest discrepancies occurred in reporting alcohol use in violent crimes, particularly for television news. Only 1.4 percent of television news stories in the sample mentioned the role of alcohol in their reporting of homicides, according to Michael Slater, co-author of the study and professor of communication at Ohio State University.

The result is that the public may underestimate the dangers of alcohol use, Slater said. “People's perceptions of risk are strongly shaped by what they see in the media, so many people may have distorted views about the risks of alcohol use,” he said. “If the media doesn't report on the link between alcohol and violent crime and accidents, most people won't be fully aware of the risks. This may also decrease public support for alcohol control measures that can significantly reduce alcohol-related problems”

Slater conducted the study with Marilee Long and Valerie Ford of Colorado State University. Their results appear in the November 2006 issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.

The link between violent crime and alcohol use was also rarely acknowledged. Estimates suggest alcohol plays a role in 31 percent of homicides, but it is mentioned in only 2.6 percent of television reports, 7.3 percent of newspaper accounts, and 5.6 percent of magazine reports of violent crime, with even lower percentages in the reporting of homicides.

For this study, the researchers used estimates that alcohol plays a role in about one third (31.1 percent) of homicides and a third (31 percent)of fatal non-traffic injuries. The estimates come from a study of data from 331 medical examiner studies conducted between 1975 and 1995.

They used statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which estimated that 34 percent of accidents involved people who were legally intoxicated.

The researchers then examined coverage of crimes and accidents appearing in a national sample of daily newspaper, magazine and local television news, as well as national television news during a two-year period (2002-03). They determined the percentage of stories that linked alcohol use to specific violent crimes, injuries and motor vehicle accidents.

In all, they analyzed the content of about 1,000 daily newspaper editions, 550 television news programs, and 72 magazine issues. Newspapers and television stations were selected so they represented all regions of the country, in cities of various sizes. Three news magazines – Newsweek, Time and U.S. News & World Report -- were also sampled, as were the three major television networks, CNN and USA Today. This sample more closely approximates a truly representative national sample of media outlets than any previous study of which the researchers are aware, Slater said.

As expected, the media was most likely to report on alcohol use in motor vehicle accidents, but even then, they fell far short of estimated numbers, Slater said. While alcohol is linked to 34 percent of motor vehicle accidents, only 12.8 percent of television stories, 19.2 percent of newspaper articles, and 22.2 percent of magazine articles about such accidents mentioned the use of alcohol, the study revealed.

For stories about fatal accidents not involving motor vehicles, alcohol was mentioned in 1.4 percent of television reports, 4.8 percent of newspaper stories and 13.6 percent of magazine articles. However, statistics suggest 31 percent of these accidents involve the use of alcohol. The link between violent crime and alcohol use was also rarely acknowledged.

Estimates suggest alcohol plays a role in 31 percent of homicides, but it is mentioned in only 2.6 percent of television reports, 7.3 percent of newspaper accounts, and 5.6 percent of magazine reports of violent crime, with even lower percentages in the reporting of homicides. As these figures show, television does the poorest job in reporting when accidents or crimes have a connection to alcohol use.

“The percentage of TV news stories about violent crime that mention the role of alcohol was less than one-tenth the estimated percentage that had such a link,” Slater said. “By just watching TV news, most people would have little idea about the dangers of alcohol abuse when it comes to crime and accidents,” he said. “Even the print media doesn't give the complete story.”

The study also looked at media coverage of drug use and found that between 1.8 and 18.1 percent of reports about crimes or accidents mentioned the use of drugs. However, there were no estimates available about how often drug use was actually involved in these incidents.

The underreporting of the alcohol connection to crimes and accidents can be blamed on both police and news reporters, Slater said. Police departments may not mandate that officers mention in their reports if alcohol is suspected of playing a role in a violent crime or some types of accidental deaths. And reporters and their editors don't make it a habit to ask.

Whatever the reasons, Slater said it does make a difference. “The underreporting of the contribution of alcohol to crime and accidents may make it more difficult for wide acceptance of strategies to control alcohol use,” he said.

23 October 2006
Ohio State University Research News

New book reveals the psychology of rumors

A flurry of rumor and gossip followed recent reports of a small plane hitting a high-rise apartment building on New York's Upper East Side. Was it a helicopter or a plane? Was it an accident or a terrorist attack? The pilot's celebrity identity added another strange twist as the rumor unraveled to substantiated fact.

The process of that unraveling, of people sorting out bits of fact and fiction, fascinates Nicholas DiFonzo, professor of social and organization psychology at Rochester Institute of Technology and one of the leading experts on rumor and gossip research. He is currently researching how rumors proliferate, spread and die over time as part of a National Science Foundation-funded study.

In their recent book Rumor Psychology: Social and Organizational Approaches published by APA Books, DiFonzo and co-author Prashant Borida, associate professor of management at the University of South Australia, present new research and ideas about rumors, which they differentiate from gossip and urban legend.

"A rumor is what you do when you try to figure out the truth with other people," DiFonzo says. "It's collective sense making. The classic example is 'I heard that…'"

Gossip, on the other hand, is sharing information with an agenda, he says. It could be for entertainment or to bond with another person or to reinforce a social norm. Gossip, which may be true, tends to have an edge.

"Gossip is more to do with social networks," DiFonzo says. "A strong motivation we have as humans is to connect with a group."

The urban legend is a misnomer, he says. "'Modern legends' or 'contemporary legends' would be more accurate."

"How do people know what's true is true?" is the question that most interests DiFonzo.

His research on rumor accuracy and the role of trust in rumor transmission seeks to determine how successful people are at figuring out the truth.

One of the studies included in Rumor Psychology surveyed public relations professionals from Fortune 500 companies about the veracity of organizational or workplace rumors from their own experience. The authors found that most workplace rumors are 95 percent accurate.

Rumor Psychology also includes new studies about rumor propagation and why people believe them. The authors also recommend methods for managing organizational rumors and present a research agenda for future rumor research.

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center found prescription pain medication (PPM) abuse is a rapidly growing problem with surprising and often unpredictable distribution patterns. The research was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Anesthesiologists in Chicago, October 13, 2006.

Mario Moric, PhD, a researcher in the department of Anesthesiology at Rush, and colleagues used survey data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2002-04 to estimate the prevalence of drug abuse across the United States for various illicit and prescription substances.

Moric found that PPM abuse did not follow traditional patterns. “Individual states with high levels of PPM abuse may not recognize the problem. The prevailing assumption that only those states with high levels of traditional illicit drug abuse should be vigilant is clearly misleading.”

The researchers found distribution of PPM abuse across the United States varied greatly and differed from other seemingly similar drug abuse trends. PPM distribution differed substantially from inhalants, heroin and sedatives, was somewhat similar to cocaine and stimulants and was closely related to distribution of tranquilizers.

Furthermore, the researchers found that states with large metropolitan areas (New York, Illinois, Texas and California) did not have a high distribution of abuse, despite the common view that drug abuse is associated with the fast-paced lifestyle of city dwellers.

“Distribution of PPM abuse across the states differs from high-profile street drugs and even particular PPMs such as oxycodone, which has its own specific pattern,” Moric said. “It is for this reason that PPM abuse must be monitored separately from other illicit substances, and the most commonly abused or most problematic PPMs should be monitored individually.”

Oxycodone, in particular, was singled out by Moric’s group because of its highly addictive nature and specific distribution pattern, which differed from many other PPMs and illicit drugs. Similar to heroin in both its effect on the body and addictive nature, oxycodone is often crushed or mixed with other drugs and used for its heroin-like “rush.” Moric warned that the key to understanding and identifying abuse requires a more sophisticated understanding than that abusers simply want to “feel good.”

“As users become addicts, they undergo a fundamental neurobiological change,” Moric said. “Processes such as learning, memory, perception, arousal and motivation all drastically change, and to classify abuse purely as ‘pleasure seeking’ is a gross oversimplification.”

The surprising results from the study should offer something of a wake-up call to physicians and other health care workers everywhere in the country. “Clinicians need to be aware of the level of abuse in their area and moderate their vigilance accordingly,” Moric said.

If PPM abuse is identified in a particular area, a multifaceted response should be implemented, he said. “Drug abuse prevention, outreach and information dissemination programs by federal, state and nonprofit agencies should be notified so that public awareness can be heightened and action be taken to reduce the problem.”

According to Moric, anesthesiologists who practice pain medicine play a particularly crucial role in combating PPM abuse. “We feel that the most important function of anesthesiologists with respect to PPM abuse is in education. Anesthesiologists are the most relevant spokespersons for both the benefits of PPMs and the potential abuses,” Moric said.

16 October 2006
Rush News Room

A new study explores how boys view their fathers as the boys move from childhood into adulthood. The study, “Witnessing Marital Violence as Children: Men’s Perceptions of Their Fathers,” is by Gary Dick, assistant professor of Social Work at the University of Cincinnati, and is published in the current issue of the Journal of Social Service Research, Volume 32, issue two.

Dick says previous research suggests boys who witness a father’s violence against their mother are at risk of becoming abusers themselves, in addition to developing an ambivalent relationship with their fathers and even ending contact with them in adulthood. “Much is known about the internal and external effects that witnessing violence has on children, but we know little about the type of relationship men had with their fathers after witnessing parental aggression,” Dick writes in the study. “Understanding abusive men’s relationships with their children and how they carry out their paternal roles is an important issue in preventing violence against women.”

In a study of 104 men ranging in age from 19 to 61, Dick compared a group of men who had witnessed marital violence as children to a group of men who did not witness marital violence as children, to see if there were differences in how the men perceived their relationships with their fathers. Forty-three percent of the men studied had parents who divorced during their childhood – the mean age of the children at the time of divorce was about eight-and-a-half years old.

In examining men’s perceptions of father involvement, Dick found that men who had witnessed marital violence felt their fathers were less accessible and less responsible with daily child care tasks (school activities, taking a child to the doctor) than men who did not grow up in a violent home. The men who witnessed marital violence were also more likely to report being emotionally and physically abused by their fathers. The survey found that men who had not witnessed their father abusing their mother were more likely to report that their father verbally expressed love, affection and praise toward them and in return, these men reported warm feelings toward their fathers.

The study also asked the men to examine the moral role of their fathers, such as teaching them right from wrong or attending church with them. The men who witnessed family violence rated their fathers lower. Growing into adulthood, Dick says there were significant differences between the two groups in becoming violent toward their own intimate partners. The men who witnessed marital violence as children were more likely to use abusive tactics on their own partners.

Dick says findings from the study have implications for social workers and counselors who treat men who batter women, as social workers not only work to prevent the abuse but help men take an active, positive role in parenting their children. The study recommends future research on how men who grew up in violent households view themselves as fathers.

13 October 2006
University of Cincinnati News

Genetic factors may be at play when it comes to the link between the personality trait of neuroticism and vulnerability for depression, according to a new study by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers.

In the October issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers reported the results from both longitudinal and genetic analyses that showed that neuroticism is a strong predictor for major depression. Using twin modeling, the researchers determined that a substantial proportion of the genetic vulnerability to depression is shared with neuroticism.

"The personality trait of neuroticism - perhaps better understood as "negative emotionality" is a strong risk factor of major depression. Our study shows that this occurs largely because levels of neuroticism are an index of the genetic liability to depression," said Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and human genetics in VCU's School of Medicine and lead author on the study.

VCU researchers, together with researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden evaluated lifetime major depression of approximately 21,000 same-sex twin pairs born between 1926 and 1958 from the Swedish National Twin Registry. In 1972 and 1973, participants completed a questionnaire containing 18 items selected from a personality test called the Eysenck Personality Inventory that assessed the personality traits of neuroticism and extroversion.

More than 25 years later, participants were interviewed in person to determine if they developed depression during their lifetime. The study sought to clarify the magnitude and nature of the association between neuroticism, extroversion and risk for major depression.

Kendler and his team found a weak relationship between extroversion and major depression. They concluded that this major dimension of personality has little to do with risk for depression.

Previous studies in literature have reported that neuroticism or neuroticism-like traits have consistently predicted future depressive episodes.

These results suggest that efforts to identify specific genes that have an impact on risk for depression might be considered also using neuroticism as a target trait.

EurekAlert!
2 October 2006