Didn't We Somehow Know This?

Author: Knight Pierce Hirst

Americans are washing their hands more. Researchers from Harris Interactive pretended to be busy in public restrooms while they secretly watched people's behavior. This 2010 research took place in 4 major cities across the country and included more than 6,000 people. The results showed that 85% of restroom users washed their hands – up from 77% in 2007. However, men continued to be more lax about it. Twenty-three percent of men failed to wash versus 7% of women. When researchers surveyed more than 1,000 adults nationwide by phone, 96% said they always washed their hands after using restrooms. Obviously, some people weren't "coming clean".

What Americans see – longer – is what they get. In a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers gave hungry study volunteers a choice of 2 snacks and then tracked their eye movements. As packaging designers have suspected, the snack the volunteers looked at longer was the one they chose most often – 70% of the time. Reading left to right is another cultural norm that is used to sell products. Our reading left to right is the reason both shelf and computer screen space on the top-left are more valuable. When it comes to making choices, the "eyes have it".

Thirty-five percent of American adults have software programs – "apps" – on their cell phones, but only 24% use them. According to surveys by the Pew Research Center and by the Nielson Company, app users tend to be younger, male, college graduates earning $75,000 or more. In 2010 the average number of apps on phones was 27 – up from 22 in 2009.  Games are the most popular apps, followed by weather apps. Women are likelier to use game and social networking apps. Men are likelier to use productivity or banking/finance apps. Considering the app culture began in 2008, app appeal's apparent.

Finally, errors by supermarket scanners cost Americans up to $2.5 billion a year. More errors occur during times of high-volume sales, like holidays. However, these everyday mistakes include shelf prices not matching checkout prices, scales charging for the plastic wrapping – not just the food – and charging tax on non-taxable items. Supermarket overcharging isn't an isolated problem. For example, state testing found 3% of products rung up wrong in California, 4% in Wisconsin and 5% in North Carolina. Supposedly, some supermarkets offer customers free items when they ring up wrong – and that policy has a nice "ring to it".

 

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/culture-articles/didnt-we-somehow-know-this-3267871.html

About the Author

Knight Pierce Hirst has written for television, newspapers and greeting cards. Now she is writing a 400-word blog 3 times a week. Knight Watch is a second look at little new items that make life more interesting and take only seconds to read at http://knightwatch.typepad.com