Drinking and aggression among university students often depends on the
context

A significant proportion of university students experience violence,
under circumstances that often involve alcohol. A new study has found
that drinking at a fraternity, sorority or campus residence increases
the likelihood of aggression, and that attending parties can
especially increase aggression for women.

Results are published in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical &
Experimental Research.

"A number of studies have shown that university students experience a
wide range of harms related to alcohol consumption, including
aggression," said Samantha Wells, a scientist at the Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health and corresponding author for the study.

Expensive sugar pills work better than cheap ones
Reuters Tue Mar 4, 4:02 PM ET

Want a sugar pill to work really well? Charge more for it.

A study published on Tuesday shows the well-known "placebo effect"
works even better if the dummy pill costs more.

Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University in North
Carolina, and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
tested 82 volunteers.

All got a light electric shock and were offered what they were told
was a painkiller.
Half were given a brochure describing the pill as a newly approved
painkiller that cost $2.50 per dose and half were given a brochure
describing it as marked down to 10 cents.

Writing in a letter to the Journal of the American Medical
Association, Ariely and colleagues said the effects were unexpectedly
strong.

Eighty-five percent of volunteers who thought they were getting a
$2.50 pill said they felt less pain after taking it, compared with 61
percent of those who thought they were getting a discounted drug.