Worst Study of the Week: Are 27 Percent of College Students "Tanorexic"?

Maybe you like to lay out in the sun. Maybe you like to do it frequently. But can you really not stop going? Earlier studies have suggested that tanning could be a kind of addictive behavior, and now new research says that more than one-fourth of college students surveyed at one university were "tanning dependent." The team of researchers say there is "some evidence" that tanning dependence, or "tanorexia," has a biological basis, like the release of endorphins known as a "runner's high." So they had 400 students and volunteers from Virginia Commonwealth University answer a survey about their tanning habits. Forty percent said they'd used tanning booths, and the researchers classified 27 percent as "tanning dependent," with tanning beneath the real sun actually more related to "dependency." This conclusion seems a little suspect. First, the questionnaire the researchers used was adapted from one used to survey people for symptoms ...