Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Blue Monday started life as a corporate puff for Sky Travel (end of January, perfect time to book a holiday). Their PR company, incidentally, offered a suspiciously similar ready-made ?equation? to another academic, just months before it first appeared as important research by Cardiff academic Cliff Arnall.
But now Blue Monday has slipped out of Sky?s ownership and become part of the canon of pseudoscientific media myth. Most alarmingly, last year it was used by the Samaritans, and this year it was used by the Mental Health Foundation. These people, apparently, think it?s okay to use bullshit to promote awareness of mental health issues.
The Sun say ?it is officially the most depressing point of the year. The misery of ?Blue Monday? was worked out by psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall.? The Express loved it. The Mirror too. ?Experts have worked it out? said Channel 4. CBBC fed it to children: ?Researchers say the third Monday in January is when people are more unhappy than at any other time in the year.?
http://www.badscience.net/2009/01/p...rested-and-look-up-waaay-too-many-references/
But now Blue Monday has slipped out of Sky?s ownership and become part of the canon of pseudoscientific media myth. Most alarmingly, last year it was used by the Samaritans, and this year it was used by the Mental Health Foundation. These people, apparently, think it?s okay to use bullshit to promote awareness of mental health issues.
The Sun say ?it is officially the most depressing point of the year. The misery of ?Blue Monday? was worked out by psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall.? The Express loved it. The Mirror too. ?Experts have worked it out? said Channel 4. CBBC fed it to children: ?Researchers say the third Monday in January is when people are more unhappy than at any other time in the year.?
http://www.badscience.net/2009/01/p...rested-and-look-up-waaay-too-many-references/