No Sugar, Please
I think Vancouver researchers at the University of British Colombia had caffeine jitters when they came up with this study. First, through a series of tests with sugar pellets as rewards, they determined which rats were naturally more motivated to do choose hard tasks with a reward or and which would just take the easy way out. They divided the two groups into “Workers” and “Slackers.” Then they fed them all caffeine and repeated the tests. The results showed that Slackers are Slackers no matter what (surprise!) and that Workers slack off after consuming caffeine.
Does this mean the end of our treasured coffee break? Will coffee be banned from the workplace until quitting time? Will all those rats have to find a new job? Did those researchers use coffee as a starting point and plan to move on to something stronger–in the interest of science? Would the time and money have been better spent researching a cure for a neglected orphan disease?
I can’t help wondering….