Stoned wallabies blamed for crop circles: That’s one introduction that really doesn’t need any embellishment. I’ve been aware of birds getting drunk from eating partly fermented berries (with sometimes tragic results), but I’d not come across stories of animals that had moved past recreational drugs and onto the hard stuff. According to news reports, wallabies have discovered poppies, grown Down Under for medicinal purposes, and happily munch them to the point of intoxication. I’m a bit skeptical of the suggestion that their subsequent aimless wanderings create a circle in nearby crops, but I would love to see someone turn this anecdote into science by determining whether the animals deliberately seek out the poppies, or if the wallabies are just getting an incidental high.

You seem familiar—can I give you money?: The Journal of Consumer Research provides us with this fine bit of jargon: “The Persuasive Role of Incidental Similarity on Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in a Sales Context.” The focus of the paper isn’t actually on physical similarity, but trivial things such as a shared birthdate. These shared items apparently increase the probability that a consumer will purchase from the salesperson. Apparently, the effect is mediated in part by the expectation that having something shared will provide the consumer with a solid basis for a long-term service relationship. Still, it makes me wonder which similarities will work, and which won’t. Shared piercings, maybe?

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