Studies have shown that many studies have been done: Wyn Drabble

Despite the rising cost of clipboards and white lab coats, studies have, of course, been done on everything you can imagine, writes Wyn Drabble.

Wyn Drabble is a teacher of English, writer, public speaker and musician. He is based in Hawke’s Bay.

I woke up ready to make the most of a Sunday morning: a casual brunch, some Jim Mora wireless banter, a bit of garden stuff, that sort of thing.

Unfortunately there was one giant problem standing in my way. It was actually Wednesday and the Sunday must have been part of a dream.

“That’s cruel,” said a work colleague when I passed it on at work. And it was, but only at first. I soon shook off the disappointment and adopted Wednesday mode.

Yes, there are day-of-the-week modes because, as you’ve probably guessed, studies have been done. Studies have, of course, been done on everything you can imagine despite the rising cost of clipboards and white lab coats.

I kid you not that good money has been spent on finding out that homelessness is bad for your health, to cite but one example.

In another shock revelation, a study produced statistical data that revealed Mexican drug wars increase homicide rates.

But this particular study that I’m focusing on was conducted by psychologists at Lincoln, York and Hertfordshire Universities in the United Kingdom, three areas where days of the week are very common.

In essence, what they found was that people’s general view was that “the weekend rocks, Mondays suck and everything in-between is just a waiting game”.

For the survey, volunteers were asked which day of the week it was and timed while they came up with their answer. You can’t get much more scientific than a stopwatch! The response time was much quicker on Mondays and Fridays, generally twice as fast as when asked on Wednesday.

You want data? 612 milliseconds for Monday, 593 for Friday, 1422 for Wednesday. You can’t argue with figures like that.

The data also showed how often we get the day wrong.

The official finding: almost 40% of respondents were a day out with their answer and, perhaps not surprisingly, most errors occurred during the middle of the week. The incorrect answer rate also jumped by nearly 50% when quizzed on a national holiday.

When people were actually on vacation, the error rate jumped even further. A not-uncommon response was, “I have no idea what day it is”.

Those busy old researchers wanted to catch the mood of each day so respondents had to match mood words with days. Monday scored a number of “tired” and “boring” nominations while Friday scored words like “party” and “freedom”.

I wondered whether popular songs matched those moods.

Boomtown Rats’ “I don’t like Mondays” had very dark historical origins and the Mamas and the Papas’ “Monday, Monday” starts out liking Mondays but that morphs into dislike by the end.

Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night (TGIF)” certainly celebrates the coming of the weekend as does The Easybeats’ “Friday on my mind” (also covered by David Bowie).

In fact, the opening verse of “Friday on my mind” sums up each weekday quite succinctly:

Monday mornin’ feels so bad

Everybody seems to nag me

Comin’ Tuesday I feel better

Even my old man looks good

Wednesday just don’t go

Thursday goes too slow

I’ve got Friday on my mi-i-i-i-i-i-ind.

So, there you have the research results in a simple melodic nutshell; no white lab coats or clipboards required. No research contributions from taxpayers. That’s the power of song.

At my own expense, I also did a days-of-the-week study. I put on a clean pair of socks every day and found that, by Friday, I could no longer get my shoes on.

Anyway, after all this, I’d like to take you back to my opening wrong-day experience because you’re possibly wondering how my Wednesday went.

I’ll let you know on Sunday.