IG Nobel 2026 - pg 1-2

Ig Nobel prize It is the 2026 awards event. And it is more whack than ever.

Wiki: “The Ig Nobel Prize is a satirical prize awarded annually since 1991 to promote public engagement with scientific research. Its aim is to “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”. The award parodies the Nobel Prize and is named after Ignatius Nobel, a fictional cousin of the Nobel Prize’s founder, Alfred Nobel.

The ceremony contains a number of whimsical events and running jokes, including throwing paper planes onto the stage, competing to win a date with a Nobel laureate, and the “24/7” lectures where winners summarize their research in 24 seconds, then in seven words.”

OK, so quirky and whack. Let us see what 2026 had in store for us (all inspired and quoted from here). I found two weird ones among them.

Economics: Citation: Paul Piff, Daniel Stancato, Stéphane Côté, Rodolfo Mendo-

za-Denton, and Dacher Keltner, for amassing evidence that upper-class people are more likely to snatch from a children’s supply of candy, and engage in other kinds of unethical behavior.

Does one’s social status have any bearing on a given person’s tendency to engage in unethical behavior? To find out, the authors conducted seven related studies to examine this issue from multiple angles.

For example, one field study assessed whether upper-class drivers (as adjudged by the type of car driven) were more or less likely to cut off other vehicles at a busy four-way intersection. Another one looked at whether such drivers were more likely to cut off pedestrians at a crosswalk. Yet another study tested whether subjects in a lab-based setting were more or less likely to help themselves to wrapped candies intended for children in another lab—a test of entitlement. And so forth.

Olfaction Citation: Ilona Croy, Tomasz Frackowiak, Thomas Hummel, and Agnieszka Sorokowska, for collecting evidence that babies smell wonderful to their parents but teenagers do not.

One might associate newborn babies more with stinky diapers than pleasant aromas, but there is, in fact, a significant body of research indicating that parents find their babies’ body odor (diapers aside) very pleasant indeed.

It’s been known to activate reward centers in the brain, and scientists believe it contributes to parent/child bonding. Mothers have been known to distinguish their newborn’s distinctive smell from other babies within days or sometimes hours of giving birth Look up the entire list and be stunned!