Have you ever wanted to poke your spouse with pins and needles? Or perhaps, blast them with unbearably loud sounds? No? Well, more than 100 married couples in a new study did something like that. But it turns out they were just hungry.
Researchers investigating the impact of low blood sugar on “aggressive impulses” gave both spouses in 107 married couples voodoo dolls representing their partners. When a spouse felt angry, they were asked to poke the dolls with up to 51 pins. The couples were also put through a series of competitive tasks, and the winner was asked to blast their spouse with noise through a headset.
During the 21-day study, participants used meters to track their blood-sugar levels. The lower their blood-glucose level, the more pins they stuck into the voodoo dolls, and the headset noise they blasted became correspondingly more intense and longer-lasting, according to the study published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.