Hypnotic Writing

Late last year "news" releases hit the media about a pseudoscientific study of the hypnotic effects of Agatha Christie's writing. One of the reports appeared in the BBC online as Scientists study Christie success. A week later Mark Liberman revealed all in The Language Log article, The brave new world of computational neurolinguistics. His scathing analysis concludes:

The recipe is simple. Take one fading literary property with a cash-rich proprietor, one statistical string analysis algorithm, and a sheaf of brain images with hot and cool color patches. Mix well. Sprinkle with neurotransmitters; add sex and violence to taste; and serve on a bed of fresh press releases.

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