2 Out of 3 Americans Choose Naughty over Nice During the Holidays; Brain Research May Provide Answers

Business Wire, Dec 17, 2003

Entertainment Editors/Lifestyle Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 2003

Decorating Desktops for the Holidays with Screensavers, America Prefers Naughty over Nice According to Screensavers.com.

According to Screensavers.com, two out of three Americans are choosing to decorate their desktops this holiday with slightly naughty screensavers over nice screensavers. The concept of pairing naughty and nice, which began as a lark, developed into a petri dish of cultural psychology.

The data are based on downloads of pop-culture screensavers from a special section of Screensavers.com where four nice screensavers are paired against four naughtier screensavers. Screensavers from South Park and H&M Christmas Lingerie lead the naughty list, with snowmen leading the nice list.

Elizabeth Phelps, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at NYU says, "in general, naughty things lead to more activity in the amygdala, an emotional center in the brain. As long as those stimuli don't produce severe consequences, people often seek out the risky or forbidden because of the gratification it provides."

General Manager of Screensavers.com, Adam Solomon says, "with over 3 million people visiting the site this month, we wanted to do something fun, yet unconventional. Our right-brained team members came up with the idea to pair up naughty and nice screensavers. Our analytical left-brainers started digging through the data...that's when we discovered this psychological petri dish in the form of screensavers."

Lisa Gelobter, Vice President of Product Management at Screensavers.com indicates, "these might be a little risque, but nothing you wouldn't see at 10pm on TV...our site skews about 50/50 for men and women. The mix of people downloading holiday screensavers has shifted to 34% of our total since Thanksgiving."

About Screensavers.com

Screensavers.com is the #1 entertainment screensaver site on the Internet, bringing together the most sought-after pop-culture screensavers and wallpaper in one place. Every month, over 2 million people use the CleanScreen Experience to get virus-free, pop-up-free, and spyware-free screensavers and wallpaper with no annoying email registration or advertising pitches. Screensavers.com is a division of Starware, a Top Ten affiliate partner of Yahoo!'s Overture division, providing web search, pop-up killers, and browser tools to over 10 million people in 164 countries. Its corporate partners include Paramount, Arista Records, United Media, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers. Screensavers.com is headquartered in New York City. For more information, visit www.screensavers.com.

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