It’s how we are.

 So a bat and a ball cost $1.10 and the bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? Well 50% of Harvard students said 10cents. It sounds right but the proper way is to say if X equals the ball cost then X + (100+X) = 110cents. Thus 2X = 110 – 100 = 10, therefore the ball costs 10/2 = 5cents. Apparently we’re plagued with many falsehoods like this simple example. Students were asked to read a list of words, Florida, golf, retirement, pension, and when asked to walk along a corridor walked slower, like they were ‘old.’ When their computer screensaver was set to floating dollar signs they became more selfish and insular. Presumably if it was set to clips from hit musicals they’d become more friendly with Dorothy. We are apparently led by the nose or ‘primed’ by numerous influences we barely notice. No doubt Merrell Streeep’s father was a keen collector of Nazi memorabilia, but I digress. Linx ads for example don’t focus on its pleasing aroma or its capacity to seal up your sweat glands, they know young lads want a shag, dream about having a shag and imagine shagging 24/7 so they show the open epithelial duct of shagarama heaven, collaterally pimping for the whole female race, whether they like it or not. Shop windows are only there to pre-moisten your buying juices before you enter. Honestly if you could avoid shop windows, TV ads, glossy magazines etc etc etc you’d find yourself wanting for nothing: well apart from sex, warmth and food. And when the guy who won the Nobel Prize for this research was asked, “So what can we do about it?” replied, “Well nothing much, it’s just how we are.”