Seems some researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, are conducting an online survey about earworms! I just filled out the survey. It takes a few minutes or several, depending on how dedicated you are to the subject. Needless to say, my answers were thorough. Check out their site (http://www.earwormery.com) and take the survey if you'd like! They are attempting to describe and to quantify some of the characteristics of earworms, measuring frequency and duration of songs that get stuck in our heads, determining the types of music, whether earwormy people are correlated with musicianship, etc.
Interestingly, they must be finding some correlation between people who experience frequent earworms and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, 'cause the portion of the survey dedicated to questions about "personality" tend toward the themes of how frequently you wash your hands, how often you count things, and whether you excessively check the lights and the doors. I wonder what that says about me...
That was quite interesting. I've never seen anything about feeling there are good and bad numbers before. I thought that was a superstitious quirk I picked up.
ReplyDeleteHey Cat! Yep, superstition, spiritual ritual, and certain psychological disorders or conditions are all somewhat related. Think of the cultural significance of numbers like 13 ("bad luck"), 7 ("good luck"), or numerological interpretations. OCD is one of the disorders in which sometimes people are obsessed with numbers, counting, or ensuring a ritual is performed a certain # of times. And there's also a condition called synesthesia, in which letters and numbers are perceived to always have a color value, or always represent some other concept. Pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteDid you take the survey?
I'm quite aware of synesthesia, though it's intensity has faded since my childhood (meds?). I had no idea that these things were tied together. I feel a bit relieved, actually. Oh, let me count the ways haha
ReplyDeleteYes, I did take the survey and I'm hoping they post the results or ask me to take part in any follow up surveys.
The questions about hand washing likely don't mean they've ALREADY found any associations between earworms and personality traits, but rather they just want to see if they do. Research starts with a lot of shot-in-the-dark questions to probe hypotheses... it doesn't mean we actually have any evidence for what we're asking at first :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Ana! Thanks for the clarification. Good to know. I'm not a scientist, so I wouldn't know the chicken-egg order of operations that goes into a questionnaire, or where the folks at Goldsmiths are on the path of understanding earworms and whether they relate to any particular personality trait or "symptom" cluster. Sounds like you're a researcher. Are you affiliated with the Earwormery project? How'd you find me?
DeleteI hope you're doing well!