AC/DC - No Joking Matter

Today the Sydney Morning Herald ran a report on a study by a professor Robert Oxoby of the University of Calgary in the Great White North (aka, Canada). In his paper, On the Efficiency of AC/DC: Bon Scott versus Brian Johnson, Oxoby found that students listening to a Brian Johnson AC/DC song (Shoot to Thrill, apparently about hunting) had a better effect on efficient decision making than the late Bon Scott's haunting rendition of the little tune, It's A Long Way to the Top If You Wanna Rock-and-Roll.

Oxoby concluded that people would be better off playing the Johnson-era AC/DC than the older Scott stuff when engaged in negotiations.

More academic tomfoolery? Actually, no. It was all a big joke, says Oxoby. He's surprised that anybody believed it. Even renowned economics professor Steve Levitt thought it was real, and said so at his Freakonomics blog. Levitt's defense - you see some pretty strange academic papers.