Weird Psychological Science

The Daily Mail (U.K.) reports the results of a study done at the University of Western Australia. They found my favorite type of  results - counterintuitive, which is to say unexpected.

The Virtual Infant Parenting programme, and others like it, involve a £1,000 ($1,300) doll which cries when it needs to be fed, burped, rocked or changed. It measures and reports if the doll is mishandled, left to cry, or left unchanged.

The theory was that looking after the baby for a few days would expose girls to the reality of teenage parenthood. But the new trial, which involved nearly 3,000 girls aged 13 to 15, found pregnancy rates actually went up.

The study authors, whose work is published in the Lancet medical journal, suspect the attention given to the girls when they were looking after the dolls encouraged them to have a baby.

Earlier research found "Scared Straight" didn't work. Bummer ... back to the drawing board. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.