The pursuit of unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking or binge drinking, not only carries various downside risks, but also provides pleasure. A parsimonious model, used in the literature to explain the decision to pursue an unhealthy activity, represents that decision as a tradeoff between risks and benefits. We build on this literature by surveying a rural population in South Africa to elicit the perceived riskiness and the perceived pleasure for various risky activities and to examine how these perceptions relate to the pursuit of four specific unhealthy behaviors: frequent smoking, problem drinking, seatbelt nonuse, and risky sex. We show that perceived pleasure is a significant predictor for three of the behaviors and that perceived riskiness is a significant predictor for two of them. We also show that the correlation between the riskiness rating and behavior is significantly different from the correlation between the pleasure rating and behavior for three of the four behaviors. Finally, we show that the effect of pleasure is significantly greater than the effect of riskiness in determining drinking and risky sex, while the effects of pleasure and riskiness are not different from each other in determining smoking and seatbelt nonuse. We discuss how our findings can be used to inform the design of health promotion strategies.

Göbekli Tepe is one of the most important archaeological discoveries of modern times, pushing back the origins of monumentality beyond the emergence of agriculture. We are pleased to present a summary of work in progress by the excavators of this remarkable site and their latest thoughts about its role and meaning. At the dawn of the Neolithic, hunter-gatherers congregating at Göbekli Tepe created social and ideological cohesion through the carving of decorated pillars, dancing, feasting—and, almost certainly, the drinking of beer made from fermented wild crops.

Drinking and thirst-motivated behaviour have traditionally been explained in terms of the rather simple concept of homeostasis. A homeostatic mechanism readily accounts for responses to acute changes in body-fluid levels. However, there are other factors regulating intake, for example, cues associated with eating, which interact with the time elapsed since last drinking and the availability of water. Future dehydration is avoided by behavioural hysteresis; a sudden reduction in fluid needs is not matched by an equivalent reduction in fluid intake. Another factor not explicable by traditional homeostasis is that, in general, drinking cannot be suppressed by water infusion. Nor are there rigid target values for body-fluid levels independent of the cost of obtaining water; when water is hard to get, a relatively low body fluid level is maintained, thus minimizing loss. On the basis of the results conflicting with traditional homeostatic theory, this paper tentatively suggests certain modifications toward a more realistic model of fluid ingestion.

Chronic throat clearing or a feeling of ‘something’ at the back of the oropharynx or nasopharynx is a common cause for referral to otorhinolaryngology services. While treatment of an underlying causative condition might be expected to improve these symptoms, in many cases a clear underlying cause is not found. Currently, there is no recognized treatment which is effective against these troublesome symptoms. This observational study investigated the effectiveness of a regime of sipping ice cold carbonated water to try to break the vicious cycle of throat clearing. Seventy-two patients with these symptoms who had previously been advised to use the regime were contacted with a postal questionnaire. Sixty-three per cent of patients documented an improvement in their symptom severity score. The most severely and most frequently affected patients had the greatest benefit. We conclude that the suggested regime can be effective in breaking the vicious cycle of persistent throat-clearing.

Current Welfare Code recommendations suggest one nipple drinker per 10 pigs, while farmers have often used a ratio of one per 20 animals. This statement is based on information from pig farmers and advisors in the United Kingdom. Neither approach is based on empirical investigation. The use of larger group sizes in commercial herds raises further questions, since the relationship between group size and the appropriate number of drinking points cannot be assumed to be linear. The aim was to assess the two conflicting drinker allocations for their effect on welfare, as measured by drinking behaviour, social behaviour and performance, and any effect of group size on these. A total of 640 Large White × Landrace growing pigs were assigned to four treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement (60 pigs, three drinkers; 20 pigs, one drinker; 60 pigs, six drinkers and 20 pigs, two drinkers). Drinker provision had no significant effect on water use (5.10, 3.88, 4.99 and 3.45 s.e. 0.231 I per pig per day respectively) but in a larger group more water was used in less drinking time (P < 0.001). The diurnal pattern of water use was similar for each treatment. More aggression occurred at the drinker in large groups with a poorer drinker allocation (11.0 v. 3.8% of drinking bouts terminated by aggression for 60 pigs with three drinkers and mean all other treatments respectively, P < 0·05). Overt aggression (2.22, 2.27, 1.76 and 2.07 (s.e. 0.284) aggressive acts per pig per h, respectively) and lesion score counts of a sample of pigs from each pen suggested no difference between treatments. Providing one drinker per 20 animals, even in a large group, did not affect drinking behaviour, social behaviour or production. These findings should not be extrapolated to situations of different ambient temperature, water flow rate or feeding strategy.

A total of 543 like-sex pairs of twins (407 MZ, 136 DZ) were sent mailed questionnaires on cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking and health conditions. The observed concordance rate for alcohol drinking was significantly higher than expected in both MZ and DZ pairs. The observed concordance rate for cigarette smoking was significantly higher than expected in the MZ, but not the DZ pairs. The observed rate of intrapair concordance for drinking was significantly higher than expected even in MZ pairs reared apart from infancy or very early childhood. Higher life satisfaction was observed more often in the higher alcohol consumers than in the lower consumers among MZ pairs discordant for alcohol drinking, while earlier onset of presbyopia was observed more often in the lower consumers. Physical symptoms, especially pains in the upper extremities, were reported more often by higher alcohol consumers than by lower consumers in the MZ pairs discordant for drinking.