Richard Wiseman

Richard Wiseman is Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. Wiseman started his professional life as a magician, before graduating in psychology. Professor Wiseman is known for his critical examination and frequent debunking of unusual phenomena, including reports of paranormal phenomena. His research has been published in numerous academic journals, reported at various conferences, and featured on television.
In 2004, Richard Wiseman took part in a preliminary test of Natasha Demkina, a young Russian woman who claims to have a special vision that allows her to see inside of people's bodies and diagnose illnesses.

Furthermore, Professor Wiseman has studied the principles of good and bad luck. He showed that both good and bad luck result from measurable habits for example, lucky people, by expecting good luck, might expend more effort in their endeavors, resulting in more success, reinforcing their belief in good luck. Moreover lucky people are more likely to look on the bright side of 'bad' encounters.

In 2001 Professor Wiseman led an international experiment to find the world's funniest joke. The study showed regional differences in humor, as well as variations between the sexes. According to its results, men preferred more aggressive and sexual jokes, while women preferred word play. Wiseman says that this is the joke that the most people found reasonably funny, and that it would be unreasonable to expect any joke to be equally understood.

This was the top joke in the UK
A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: "That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!" The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: "The driver just insulted me!" The man says: "You go right up there and tell him off – go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you."

To sum up, Richard Wiseman is unique and special psychologist he made many interesting experiments and conclusions. He deserves to be one of the top psychologists... ever.



Interesting fact: Jokes containing 103 words are the funniest.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wiseman
http://www.laughlab.co.uk/