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Study Finds Value in Email Spam

Posted by Zonk on from the better-than-the-porky-kind-anyway dept.

Ant writes "According to a LiveScience story, a steady diet of email spam can be good for you. From the article: 'Researchers split a group of more than 2,100 Canadians into two groups. One group got e-mails that promoted healthy lifestyles, the other got none. "These were informative and motivational messages sent weekly for 12 weeks," explained study leader Ron Plotnikoff of the University of Alberta. The e-mails promoted the benefits of a good diet and physical activity. Those who were effectively spammed, as a group, saw their mean body mass index (BMI) go down, meaning it improved. BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. Overall BMI rose for the control group, which did not get the emails.'"

5 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Spam + Solicitation != Spam by Endareth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Surely spam by definition is unsolicited? If you have a group of people choosing to receive it then it's no longer spam. Whatever the intention and results of this study, linking it to spam is simply wrong.

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    Disclaimer: The above comment was made while under the influence of too much coding and not enough sleep.
    1. Re:Spam + Solicitation != Spam by MattyDK23 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The article doesn't mention, though, if the members of the spam group were aware of the fact that they were receiving the study's spam -- or if the members of the no-spam group were aware they weren't receiving the study's spam.
      Furthermore, could the spam group differentiate between the genuine spam and the study's opt-in spam?
      It's kind of like a blind test. Sure, you probably signed a waiver saying you're willing to receive extra "spam". But you don't know if you're receiving the extra spam or not, and if you are, you're not aware of which emails are the extra spam.

    2. Re:Spam + Solicitation != Spam by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Besides, have you ever received any "health" spam?

      All I get is spam about illegal drugs or medication, genitalia modifications, unfortunate nigerians, porn or how my bank account details got lost again.

      I also wonder as to the content of these spams; was it health tips or true spam advertising dangerous medication, and why did their BMI go down; because they started using illegally obtained or even banned meds?

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  2. Not exactly spam by Chatmag · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The emails were informative. I see nowhere in the article that they promoted a product or service.

    If I get an email with no commercial link, or promoting a particular product, its not spam. Spam is UCE, unwanted commercial email.

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    Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com
  3. Bogus Article / Bogus Research by humankind · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The article isn't about spam. It's a study of the effects of e-mail-based affirmations. It doesn't take a bunch of goofball researchers to demonstrate that daily affirmations are influential, but what does that have to do with spam? Nothing.

    Spam is universally acknowledged as unsolicited, deceptive, indiscriminate, often illegal and immoral solicitations.

    If they want to do a legitimate study on spam, then use spam, NOT uplifting e-mail messages.