"I picked up a bad case of arrabiata, and had to go see a doctor..."

[kallistii]

How many of you though the title was about a Sexually Transmitted Disease?

How many of you thought the title was about a box of Italian hot sauce that had gone off and given someone food poisoning?

Well, according to a study involving interviews with 1,015 people in England, nearly two thirds thought it was a STD, thus exposing the lack of knowledge about STDs. In reality, Arrabiata is an Italian style hot sauce.

Ignorance is bliss...until it kills you!

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2006-12-01T205030Z_01_L01887249_RTRUKOC_0_US-BRITAIN-SEX.xml&src=rss

Comments

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

I knew what it was, but then again, I like arrabiata sauces.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

As do I to some extent ...

[swestrup]

I'm not sure this is very good test. I'm sure they would have gotten the exact same results had they used a sentence of:

"I picked up a bad case of GFRM, and had to go see a doctor..."

where GFRM is simply an unrecognized term. At this point the question is what is the cognitive strategy for inferring the most likely meaning of GFRM. Deciding it was some sort of disease is natural as A) No one is expected to know all the diseases and B) a doctor was mentioned.

If the two options given for the above were STD or hot sauce, even I would have chosen STD.

So, maybe all it tests for is knowledge of Italian cooking? In that case, yes, I find that 2/3rds not getting it correct is bad, but we all know that Englang is cuisine impaired anyway.

[ravenlaughing.livejournal.com]

Good thing I didn't get laid while on holiday, then, eh?

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

[grin] I guess...

ttyl