Thread by @nicolestamp

My university roommate just reminded me that one time, in first year, I signed up to be a guinea pig in a psychology study and it was the best study ever...

The rate was $15 for an hour. I was brought into a small blank room with a computer and a plate of tiny cookies on the table.

I was invited to help myself, so I tried one.

The cookies were great AND they had been microwaved, so they were warm and chewy, just excellent. I had a couple.

The researcher asked me to do a quiz

It was about body image.

How often did I feel fat? How often did I work out? Was I dieting? Did I tend to avoid fatty foods? The thing is,

no no and no. I have never really had the willpower or interest required to sustain any kind of diet and I really like foods that are high in fat- basically I eat like a medieval king. So I filled out their quiz and all my answers were YUM YUM YOM I LOVES FOODS

I finished the quiz and they were like "ok we need to go get the next activity but we left it in the other lab- can you wait here for like 10 minutes? I looked over at the little plate of cookies and was like YEP YEP YEP

So the researcher left and I started eating tiny delectable cookies like it was my job. Man they were good cookies. I ate a lot.

Then the researcher came back and was like "ok you can go now"

and I was like "what about the other part of the experiment?"

and she was like "uhhh we had a computer crash or whatever"

And I had a flash of insight: "Wait. There WAS no other activity. The real experiment was to count how many cookies I ate."

And she was like "yep"

And I was like "Uhhhh... I ate a lot"

And she was like "I KNOW"

And I was like "Wait, was that quiz intended to fat shame me into eating fewer cookies? Like was the hypothesis, "We think being fat shamed make a teenage girl eat fewer delicious cookies?"

And she was like "uhhh that's not how we phrased it, but... yes"

And I was like "Does it usually work?"

And she was like "Wellllllll yes? Most people eat
2 cookies"

Friends, I had eaten at least 20 cookies.

I felt kind of.... proud.

And then to make things even better, then she handed me my $15!

As I left I was like, "Hey can I take a few more of them there cookies?"

And she was like NO

So that's the story of the best science experiment I ever ruined.

It seems unethical to try to get people to feel bad enough to avoid cookies.

I'm glad I ruined their shitty data by being shameless about liking food.

And I honestly still think about those cookies.

They were really damn good.

/FIN

Another university friend just saw this tread and texted me

Those researchers tried to furniture shame Jennifer Matotek but it didn't work

You guys should just SEE her with furniture now, she's absolutely shameless and I support her wholeheartedly

@threadreaderapp, please unroll this thread!