I participated in a most evil study today. First, they showed me these two advertisements for sports drinks and gave me about 5 minutes to study them (they were approximately the same). Then I was put in this room and made to eat crackers (brand A and B) and fill in questionnaires about how salty/cheesy/spicy, etc. I thought they were. Then came this computer divided attention test. Finally, they brought "actual" samples of the two sports drinks out (one was clear and the other was orange) and told me to taste them and fill in a questionnaire about which I preferred, etc. Now, the evil thing was that almost all of the experiment was just a distraction from the fact that during the divided attention test, they were flashing subliminal messages at me (the cooked-up brand name of one of the drinks). Then, the test was which of the drinks I would try first and which one I would drink more of. Damn psychologists. Oh wait, that's me.

Books:
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (good!)