Ig Nobel Prize Winners, September 18, 2025

“The Ig Nobel awards are arguably the highlight of the scientific calendar.” 

— Nature 

From Improbable Research, September 18:

The 2025 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

The 2025 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded at the 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, on Thursday evening, September 18, 2025, at Boston University, in Massachusetts.  TICKETS to attend the ceremony are now on sale. The ceremony also was livecast.

LITERATURE PRIZE  [USA]
The late Dr. William B. Bean, for persistently recording and analyzing the rate of growth of one of his fingernails over a period of 35 years.

REFERENCES:
“A Note on Fingernail Growth,” William B. Bean, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, vol. 20, no. 1, January 1953, pp. 27-31. <doi.org/10.1038/jid.1953.5>
“A Discourse on Nail Growth and Unusual Fingernails,” William B. Bean, Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, vol. 74, 1962; pp. 152-67. <pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2249062>
“Nail Growth. Twenty-Five Years’ Observation,” William B. Bean, Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 122, no. 4, October 1968, pp. 359-61. <doi.org/10.1001/archinte.1968.00300090069016>
“Nail Growth: 30 Years of Observation,” William B. Bean, Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 134, no. 3, September 1974, pp. 497-502. <doi.org/10.1001/archinte.1974.00320210107015>
“Some Notes of an Aging Nail Watcher,” William B. Bean, International Journal of Dermatology, vol. 15, no. 3, April 1976, pp. 225-30. <doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-4362.1976.tb00696.x>
“Nail Growth. Thirty-Five Years of Observation,” William B. Bean, Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 140, no. 1, January 1980, pp. 73-6. <doi.org/10.1001/archinte.1980.00330130075019>
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Bennett Bean (William B. Bean’s son)

PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE [POLAND, AUSTRALIA, CANADA]
Marcin Zajenkowski and Gilles Gignac, for investigating what happens when you tell narcissists — or anyone else — that they are intelligent.

REFERENCE: “Telling People They Are Intelligent Correlates with the Feeling of Narcissistic Uniqueness: The Influence of IQ Feedback on Temporary State Narcissism,” Marcin Zajenkowski and Gilles E. Gignac, Intelligence, vol. 89, November–December 2021, 101595. <doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2021.101595>
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Marcin Zajenkowski and Gilles Gignac

NUTRITION PRIZE [NIGERIA, TOGO, ITALY, FRANCE]
Daniele Dendi, Gabriel H. Segniagbeto, Roger Meek, and Luca Luiselli, for studying the extent to which a certain kind of lizard chooses to eat certain kinds of pizza.

REFERENCE: “Opportunistic Foraging Strategy of Rainbow Lizards at a Seaside Resort in Togo,” Daniele Dendi, Gabriel H. Segniagbeto, Roger Meek, and Luca Luiselli, African Journal of Ecology, vol. 61, no. 1, 2023, pp. 226-227. <doi.org/10.1111/aje.13100>

....MUCH MORE including another reason to attend Oktoberfest (as if anybody needed one):

PEACE PRIZE [THE NETHERLANDS, UK, GERMANY]
Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field, and Jessica Werthmann, for showing that drinking alcohol sometimes improves a person’s ability to speak in a foreign language.

REFERENCE: “Dutch Courage? Effects of Acute Alcohol Consumption on Self-Ratings and Observer Ratings of Foreign Language Skills,” Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field, and Jessica Werthmann, Journal of Psychopharmacology, vol. 32, no. 1, 2018, pp. 116-122. <doi.org/10.1177/0269881117735687>

Which NL Times.nl headlines:

Ig Nobel prize for study showing that drunk Germans speak Dutch better than sober ones 

While BioEngineer.org focused on:

2025 Ig Nobel Prize Awarded for Perfecting the Science of Pasta Sauce 

And which was also picked up by ScienceDaily:

Scientists revealed the physics behind perfect pasta sauce, earning the Ig Nobel Prize.