It's not the alcohol, it's the testosterone: Weird Science has come across several indications that the drinking that goes on at sporting events puts fans at risk of various mishaps, including automotive fatalities. And we on the Weird Science staff were inclined to accept this as a compelling account. Apparently, however, we had it all wrong. A paper (not yet available to the public; press release is here) has a look at the elevated rates of traffic fatalities that follow sporting events, and shows that close, tension-filled games are more likely to be associated with fatalities. Since dull games probably promote more drinking, that doesn't really keep with the general hypothesis.
Things go really bad with the idea that it's the drinking when the authors looked at location data—the fatalities went up specifically in the area near the home of the winning team. That's more in keeping, they argue, with a testosterone surge (something that does occur following sporting wins) has made the local fans more aggressive on the roads.
Undercutting a spirit of openness: Lots of companies have recognized that having their employees share information helps ensure that more decisions are made from an informed perspective, and have put policies in place to ensure that information does get spread around. A new study took a look at why those policies don't always work, and came to a simple conclusion: employees like keeping secrets, a phenomenon they term "knowledge hiding." The basic motivation for this is mistrust of one's fellow employees, but it comes out in different ways: evasion, rationalization of not sharing, and (the authors' words, not mine) "playing dumb."
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