Santa Tracker Fact, Santa Claus Prefers Rich Children

Random News - The whole year be good, then comes on Christmas Eve the Christmas man: so parents tell their children. But Santa Claus apparently has quite different criteria of visit, as a not quite serious study revealed.

There is so much known about Santa Claus: a man with a long white beard, red clothes, lives at the North Pole, reindeer, sleigh, sack with presents. Knows every child.

Santa Claus loves children, photo: spiegel.de

In addition, the man is said to have a faultless character and is particularly committed to the poor and the weak. But on the other hand, his appearance with the children is linked to an ice-cold blackout: the little ones should be beautiful all year round - otherwise there is nothing. Is it not so far with the social soul of the Santa Claus? (Also read: Om Telolet Om - A Trend Goes Viral Overnight)

A clear case for science. That is why researchers at John Park, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, have looked at how often the man with the white beard is actually trying to find the poor and the weak - more specifically the sick and the small. Because the scientists have investigated how many times Christmasmasters in British children's clubs have dived to the feast of 2015. To do so, they called the clinics and prepared a questionnaire.

The Santa Claus loves Northern Ireland

The result: Santa Claus Doubles visited 168 of the 186 clinics, which corresponds to a quota of 90 percent. It turns out that he likes to stay in Northern Ireland. Here, employees from all eight investigated clinics reported on his presence. In Scotland, too, he often looked to him - after all, in 14 of the 15 houses he made children happy with his presence. In England, where most of the clinics were located, the rate was only 89 percent (135 out of 151). (Also read: Fidel Castro)

But what factors could influence the Santa Claus during his visit selection? The researchers also wanted to know this. For this reason, they have, for example, recorded the youth crime rate (age 10 to 17 years) from the respective regions of the individual clinics and the number of school days in primary schools.

For those who tail the school is not good. And would therefore be spurned by the Christmas man. In addition, the distance from the Santa Claus residence at the North Pole to the individual clinics (air line due to reindeer flight) was also included. But does the old Rauschbart care everything?

No, the researchers say, they could not find any correlation in their calculations. With this, John Park and his team consider the Santa Claus myth of the brave child to be rejected: the old man and his bag full of presents are also coming to evil and retiring children. It is pointless, therefore, to be threatened by Mama and Papa all year round, that there are no presents under the fir if one is not good. (Also read: The "Black Friday", 25.10.1929 -Horror And Panic-)

And: even the arrival time is no matter the Christmas man. For between the northernmost and the southernmost clinic he has visited, lie many hundred kilometers.

Difference between rich and poor

However, the scientists have still found a factor that the Santa Claus seems to jump onto: the social status. In order to capture this, the researchers have formed an index in which data on income, employment, health care, education or criminality have flowed.

And, lo and behold, in places with particularly low social status, the Santa Claus drove his reindeer into rarely - abundant brats seem to be preferred. "This is our most important finding," says Park. In Northeast London the visit rate was only 50 percent - the lowest value of the study. To ensure that all children are treated equally at Christmas, one should urgently improve the working conditions of Santa Claus, the researchers write.

Übrigens, wer es noch nicht gemerkt hat: Ganz ernst ist die Studie nicht gemeint. Sie stammt aus der berüchtigten Weihnachtsausgabe des "British Medical Journal". Darin vergessen etliche sonst furchtbar seriöse Forscher ihren Alltag und beschäftigen sich einmal jährlich zur Weihnachtszeit mit schrägen Themen.(Also read: Mexico Fireworks Market Explosion)

Im vergangenen Jahr etwa wurde ein Paper veröffentlicht, in dem die Auswirkungen einer Zombie-Apokalypse untersucht wurden. Auch die Studie über die Häufigkeit von Bob-Dylan-Zitaten in biomedizinischen Studien dürfte die Menschheit nicht entscheidend vorangebracht haben. Aber bei allem Klamauk gilt: Auch für die Weihnachtsausgabe müssen die Studien den üblichen Peer-Review-Prozess durchlaufen, bei dem die wissenschaftliche Qualität von unabhängigen Fachkollegen beurteilt wird.

Die scheint bei der Weihnachtsmann-Studie zu stimmen. Dabei haben die Forscher auch einen weniger wissenschaftlichen, dafür umso menschlicheren Antrieb. "Alles, was wir wollen, ist, dass alle Kinder an Weihnachten glücklich sind.", schreiben sie. In diesem Sinne: frohes Fest.