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Swedish
8 June 2010

#159 Hide presents

A group of psychology students in Seattle conducted an experiment at their university. The day before a big exam they baked 150 cookies and went to the university library where their fellow students were studying with sweat running down their foreheads, spending the days last conscious minutes absorbing as much knowledge as they could. The psychology students whipped out their cookie jars and started handing out cookies. One per student. A few were suspicious. Others ate the cookie and went back to studying.

Afterwards they compared the cookie-eating students with the 150 students who took the same exam a week earlier and who hadn’t gotten a cookie. There was no doubt about it. The bunch who got a cookie did 20% better on their exam than their fellow students.

A cookie consists of flower, sugar, water and baking soda.

An unexpected cookie contains another magical ingredient, both for giver and receiver.

Required time: 
To hide an envelope with a cookie or a coin in it around town takes a couple of minutes. To prepare the envelope, maybe another two. So all in all, no more than five minutes.
Cost: 
Ten Swedish crowns plus the cost of the envelope. All together, maybe 12 Swedish crowns (1.20 euro).
Cons: 
People seeing you hide the envelope might think you’ve been sent by a company or that there’s a catch behind what you’re doing.
Pros: 
You could end up making someone so happy that they decide to make someone else happy, and if someone doesn’t put a stop to it, it could keep on going, on and on.
Taggar: stanford, exam, cookie

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