TPge 2 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 24, 1986
Boring people
Scientists study Vcute social disease'
NEW YORK (AP) -
Researchers are studying an acute
social disease whose victims at one
-time or another afflict almost
everyone around them: bores.
The scientists are looking at
why some people are boring, in
what ways they can be boring, and
just how boring they can get.
They've even established a
"boringness index."
I Among other things, their
studies suggest that, to those who
have to listen to them, people who
complain about themselves and
mutter trivialities are worse than
-people who overuse slang or try too
,hard to be nice.
They also found that boring
conversation tends to include more
questions and utterances like "Uh-
huh," with fewer statements of fact
,or self-disclosure, than more
interesting talk.
THE EXPERIMENTS are
among the first in an area that could
lead to help for "chronically and
,excessively boring persons," the
UM News in
The Daily
764-0552
researchers wrote in the November
issue of the Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology.
We're all boring sometime and
we're all interesting sometimes
(but) some people are more boring
than others," said Mark Leary,
assistant psychology professor at
Wake Forest University in
Winston-Salem, N.C., co-author of
the report with three students.
The work may sound tedious but
it's "a first step in a whole new
direction that we need to know
more about," said Harry Reis,
Psychology Prof. at the University
of Rochester in New York.
The experiments were based on a
survey of undergraduate students and
analyses of brief conversations
between undergraduates who had
just met. More work will be needed
to see if the conclusions apply to.
other kinds of people and
situations, Leary said.
In one experiment, 42 students
suggested 210 tiresome things other
people do that bore them, which
researchers distilled into 43 themes
for a second survey of 29 students.
THAT SURVEY found that
the most boring behaviors were
banality, such as talking about
trivia or superficial things or
showing interest in only one topic,
and "negative egocentrism," which
essentially meant complaining
about oneself and showing
disinterest in others.
The least objectionable
behaviors were "boring
ingratiation," or trying to be funny
and nice to impress others, and a
mixture of distracting behaviors
such as going off on tangents or
overusing small talk or slang, such
as:
"Hey wow, man, this was far
out, it was too cool," Leary said in
a telephone interview. "It gets a
little old."
A second study focused on five-
minute conversations between 52
pairs of strangers. Transcripts were
reviewed by 12 undergraduates who
rated a randomly chosen person in
each conversation for boringness.
That person's conversation was also
studied for grammatical form and
communicative intent, and the
results compared to his "boringness
index."
You might get tired of people
who talk on and on and on, but the
study found that more boring
people tended to talk less. In
addition, their conversation tended
to have higher proportions of
questions and of simple
acknowledgements that they were
listening such as "uh-huh."
Police investigate
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BUSINESS
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91 REVIEWINTRODUCTIUK TOU LM A
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hiag assail
By MELISSA BIRKS
Ann Arbor police are invest-
igating two assaults that occurred
over the weekend on the Diag,
according to Sgt. Terry Jinkerson.
A University student was walk-
ing through the Diag when a 23- to
25-year-old man began mastur-
bating in front of her. He pushed
POLICE NOTES
her to the ground, but she struggled
and managed to escape, Jinkerson
said.
Friends of the woman took her
to the University Hospital, where
she was treated for minor injuries.
An Ann Arbor man was robbed
on the Diag at 1:15 a.m. yesterday,
police said.
The victim was walking through
the northeast area of the Diag when
two men overtook him and de-
manded money. One of the suspects
put his hand in his pocket to imply
that he had a gun, although he did
not actually show it. The victim
told police he was "intimidated,"
and gave the men all the change he
had totalling one dollar.
Police questioned and then re-
leased two 20-year-old men in
connection with the strong-arm rob-
bery.
Arson suspects questioned
Four "student-age" men were
apprehended yesterday morning in
Ilts
connection with the arson of South
Quad bulletin boards, Jinkerson
said. Housing Security officers
caught the men shortly after the fire
was reported at 3:20 a.m. yesterday.
The men were released pending
investigation.
Off-campus robberies
Police are investigating several
robberies that occurred off-campus
this weekend.
Three men driving a van picked
up a man, beat him up, and stole
$10 before they threw him out of
the van at 1 a.m. Saturday on
Washtenaw Avenue near Parkway
Street.
In another incident, a woman
walking to her apartment on the
2100 block of Milford escaped
injury yesterday morning after a 20-
year-old man approached her with a
handgun and demanded money. She
threw her purse - which only
contained loose change - at the
suspect and ran into the apartment
building, Jinkerson said. The sus-
pect and a companion fled in a
nearby car.
A cab driver was robbed at 4:50
a.m. Saturday, Jinkerson said. The
driver was in his car waiting to pick
up a fare at town-houses on the
2300 block of Arrowwood when a
man reached in through the open
window.
He grabbed the victim's hair and
threatened to use a gun, then took
$50 and fled on foot, Jinkerson
said.
IN BRIEF
COMPILED FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
GM strike ends, layoffs linger
KOKOMO, Ind. - Workers began returning to a key parts plant
yesterday after a strike that forced layoffs of more than 47,000 General
Motors Corp. workers nationwide, but GM officials could not say when
the layoffs would end.
The six-day strike at the Delco Electronics plant triggered layoffs in
eight states and threatened to shut down the nation's number 1 automaker
as the supply of radios and electronic parts for all GM cars was
exhausted.
The 7,700 United Auto Workers at the GM subsidiary walked off the
job Nov. 17 in a dispute over subcontracting and a plan to produce
Delco's newest radio line in Mexico.
A contract resolving those issues and implementing Japanese
management techniques was approved overwhelmingly Saturday by UAW
Local 292.
Because of the system, the effects of the strike were seen in some GM
plants within 24 hours. By Friday, 37,550 workers had been laid off at
one point or another.
Iraq bombs two Iranian cities
NICOS IA, Cyprus - Iraqi warplanes bombed two western Iranian
cities yesterday, killing 112 civilians, Iran reported. It vowed to retaliate
by shelling Iraqi cities.
Iraq confirmed it bombed the cities, Bakhtaran and Islamabad Gharb. It
said the targets were an air base, an oil refinery and military camps.
War information headquarters in Tehran said Iranian forces would shell
Iraqi cities "in retaliation for the savage Iraqi air raids," Iran's official
Islamic Republic News Agency said.
The Iraqi News Agency said squadrons of Iraqi jets bombed the two
cities and left "the targets on fire and covered with smoke."
The state-run agency, monitored in Nicosia, said two civilians were
wounded by Iranian shelling yesterday in the city of Khanaqin 100 miles
northeast of Basra.
The two sides have been at war since September, 1980.
Hijackers free Italian'inmates
ROME - Two gunmen hijacked a Red Cross helicopter yesterday,
lifted two inmates from a prison courtyard, and flew off firing automatic
weapons at guards, police said.
A third prisoner dashed toward the helicopter but slipped in the rain.
The chopper landed a short time later in a Rome soccer field where a
match was under way, and hijackers and convicts fled by car. Police set
up roadblocks and searched the region with helicopters.
Officials said the hijackers spoke French and that one jailbreaker, a
Tunisian-born Frenchman, was sought by French authorities in
connection with a Paris bank robbery and murder. The other fugitive
reportedly was suspected of supplying arms to Italian terrorists.
Police said the hijackers walked into San Camilo Hospital in western
Rome and cornered the helicopter pilot, Mauro Pompa.
They handcuffed Pompa's 10-year-old son to a radiator and forced
Pompa at gunpoint to take them to the helicopter parked across the
street.
Eruptions rock Japanese cities
TOKYO - Mount Mihara subsided yesterday after a fiery eruption
that forced 11,000 people to flee a small island, but hundreds of miles
away another volcano erupted and sent a big rock flying into a hotel,
injuring five people.
Oficials said Mount Sakurajima hurled a rock 6 and one-half feet in
diameter into a one-story concrete hotel just outside Sakurajima, about
620 miles southwest of Tokyo.
Officials of the Central Meteorological Agency said Mount
Sakurajima has erupted often since 1955, including 474 eruptions last
year. Police said 15 people were in the hotel at the time and two were
seriously hurt.
Officials said the eruption was not linked with that of Mount Mihara,
about 540 miles away on Oshima Island. Oshima is 70 miles south of
Tokyo.
One Central Meteorological Agency official said about 30 gas
explosions were recorded yesterday morning in the craters of Mount
Mihara, compared with countless explosions Saturday, but that none was
observed yesterday afternoon.
Anchorage to compete for
1994 Olympic Games site
SPARKS, Nev. - The U.S. Olympic Committee voted
overwhelmingly yesterday to make Anchorage, Alaska, its representative
to host the 1994 Winter Olympics.
The USOC's 86-member Executive Board also approved Colorado
Springs, Colo., as the site of an Olympic Hall of Fame, and approved
Oklahoma City as the location for the 1989 U.S. Olympic Festival.
USOC President Robert Helmick said the main reason for supporting
Anchorage as the U.S. bid city for the 1994 Winter Games was that other
American cities - including Reno, Nev. - vwouldn't have enough time
to make an adequate presentation to the International Olympic;
Committee.
The IOC is expected to make its decision on the 1994 Winter
Olympics location during the 1988 Summer Games at Seoul, South
Korea. All bids must be submitted to the IOC by next April.
Vol. XCVII --No. 58
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(Continued from Page 1).
the National Assembly, reinstating
the pro-Marcos National Assembly
abolished by Aquino, and calling
presidential elections.
The official, who demanded
anonymity, said more than 100
members of a military faction
identified with Enrile were in on the
plot, with the coup to begin at 2
a.m. yesterday. The government
learned of it at 10 a.m. Saturday,
the official said.
TROOPS LOYAL to Aquino
and Ramos surrounded radio and
television stations in Manila and
elsewhere Saturday, and tightened
security measures at the presidential
palace and other key points.
The official said he did not know
if Enrile knew about the plot.
Yesterday, after holding a
lengthy Cabinet meeting, Aquino
announced on television that she
had asked all Cabinet members to
resign.
She said Enrile complied, and
she immediately swore in his
replacement, Deputy Defense
Minister Rafael Ileto.
Ileto later met with officers of
the Reform the Armed Forces
Movement, who like Enrile wanted
a tougher line taken against
communist insurgents.
"He (Ileto) asked for unity and
we said yes," said Col. Gregorio
Honasan, Enrile's security chief.
ENRILE REFUSED to see
reporters who gathered outside his
home at a fashionable suburban
village, but sent out his daughter,
Katrina.
She said Enrile "is taking it very
well," and added, "We've waited for
this day for such a long time,"
referring to her father's leaving
government after more than two
decades.
Enrile has been widely viewed as
having presidential aspirations.
Ileto told reporters he did not
think there would be "a reaction"
from pro-Enrile soldiers. Asked if
he would discipline officers
involved in the plot, Ileto said an
informal investigation was under
way and that "if it calls for
discipline, then we would."
Small numbers of soldiers
continued to guard the government
television and radio stations and
palace security was at full alert.
U' Student
protest racism
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