Curious Facts

Page 22

Until well into the twentieth century the neurological condition multiple sclerosis (MS) was thought to be a predominantly, or exclusively, male disease. Most women's symptoms were dismissed as "female hysteria". It is now known that MS affects roughly twice as many women as men.
At the time of writing (2012), the largest living organism in the world is thought to be a fungus that is growing in the Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. This honey fungus of the species Armillaria ostoyae covers an area of approximately 8.9 km² (2,200 acres).
Tomatoes are carnivorous. Sticky hairs on their stems kill small insects which then fall to the ground and decay. Nutrients from the dead animals are absorbed through the plants’ roots.
Large tropical species of carnivorous plants are able to trap and digest frogs, birds and small mammals.
Onions have about 5 times more DNA than humans.
The salamander has about 26 times more DNA than humans.
Consider a disease which kills 10 in every 10,000 people. Consider that there is an effective vaccine but that it kills 8 in 10,000 people. Research suggests that most people would not vaccine a child in such circumstances, despite that fact that it will reduce the probability of the child dying¹.
The researchers suggest that this is an example of omission bias; the tendency to judge harmful actions (commissions) as being worse or less moral than harmful inactions (omissions)². The best known example of omission bias is the thought experiment known as the Trolley Problem in which people are asked whether they would act to kill one person in order to save five³.

1. Ritov, I., & Baron, J. (1990). Reluctance to vaccinate: omission bias and ambiguity. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 3, 263-277.

2. Spranca, M.,, Minsk, E., & Baron, J. (in press). Omission and commission in judgment and choice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

3. Philippa Foot, The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect in Virtues and Vices (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1978)

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