The ‘beergoggles’ effect
In their drinking location, these participants had to rate the attractiveness of photographic facial images of unfamiliar males and females of their own age. They looked at 59 male and 59 female faces (one at a time) on a lap-top computer screen, and rated each on a sevenpoint scale of attractiveness.

Expert patients...

• Feel confident and in control of their lives
• Aim to manage their condition and its treatment in partnership with health care professionals
• Communicate effectively with professionals and are willing to share responsibility on treatment
• Are realistic about the impact of their disease on themselves and their family
• Use their skills and knowledge to lead full lives

Editor's choice
But perhaps the problem of advertising lies less with those doing the advertising and more with those following it. "The deeper problems of advertising come less from the unscrupulousness of our 'deceivers,'" wrote Daniel J Boorstein in 1962, "than from our pleasure in being deceived, less from the desire to seduce than from the desire to be seduced." Or is this just the BMJ copping out?

'One for the road'
3pm Saturday 29th May, meet at Static

Pharmacist Anne Waddington attempts a holistic commentary on the rhetoric of health care. The discussion will range over issues of trust and transparency and confront the problem of how 'you share the uncertainty that is ubiqutious in medicine and still seem to have expertise.'