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The surprising benefit of passive–aggressive behaviour at Christmas parties: being crowned king of the crackers
Author(s) -
Huang B Emma,
Clifford David,
Lê Cao KimAnh
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/mja14.01392
Subject(s) - victory , advertising , psychology , mathematics , business , law , political science , politics
Objective: To test the effects of technique and attitude in pulling Christmas crackers. Design , setting and p articipants : A binomial trial conducted at a Christmas‐in‐July dinner party involving five anonymous dinner guests, including two of the authors. Main outcome measure : Number of wins achieved by different strategies, with a win defined as securing the larger portion of the cracker. Results: The previously “guaranteed” strategy for victory, employing a downwards angle towards the puller, failed to differentiate itself from random chance (win rate, 6/15; probability of winning, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.15–0.65). A novel passive–aggressive strategy, in which one individual just holds on without pulling, provided a significant advantage (win rate, 11/12; probability of winning, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.76–1.00). Conclusion : The passive–aggressive strategy of failing to pull has a high rate of success at winning Christmas crackers; however, excessive adoption of this approach will result in a complete failure, with no winners at all.