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The Thought Show: Why January Makes us Want to Scream

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Factual: Life Stories

EdwardMunch_TheScream.jpg

26/01/2017 GMT

Why January Makes us Want to Scream

BBC World Service - The Thought Show, Why January Makes us Want to Scream

Is the third Monday in January really the day people feel saddest?

Is the third Monday in January really the day people feel saddest? Also, could sending a GIF be a crime? And, why do people believe conspiracy theories?

There are two things that you can be sure of in January and both of them make the More Or Less team want to scream. Firstly, Oxfam put out their ‘x number of billionaires hold the same wealth as the poorest half of the world’ statistic, a comparison which, as said in the past, does not make sense. The second head-banger is ‘Blue Monday’, the formula that supposedly tells us that the third Monday in January is when people are at their saddest. Each year it appears on different press releases promoting different products, but there is no science to it at all.

Also, could sending a GIF be a crime? GIFs – online flashing animations – can induce seizures in those with photosensitive epilepsy. So is knowingly sending a GIF to a person with epilepsy a crime? We find out about a case testing exactly that question. 

And why do people believe conspiracy theories which cast doubt on the official narratives of some very serious events - from the Holocaust to 9/11, Diana to JFK, Lockerbie to Sandy Hook? What prompts people to think in this way and how should governments react to the people who doubt them?

(Photo: Edvard Munch's The Scream, 1893. No copyright /in the Public Domain)

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