You're reading: Ukrainian scientist wins satirical award for linking corruption to obesity

Politicians who stuff themselves are also more likely to stuff their pockets, at least according to Ukrainian researcher Pavlo Blavatsky, who received the satirical award Ig-Nobel prize for economics on Sept. 9.

His 2020 research paper entitled “Obesity of politicians and corruption in post-Soviet countries” linked body mass index and political corruption among the political elite.

Blavatsky, a lecturer at the School of Business in Montpellier, France, used computer algorithms to create body-mass statistics from roughly 300 photos of ministers in office in 2017. He picked them from 15 post-Soviet countries, including Ukraine. 

The estimated body-mass index for ministers was “generally quite high,” according to the researcher, with 42% of Ukrainian ministers classified as “severely obese.”

The paper suggests that the results may be used in the future as a proxy variable for measuring political corruption. 

“This result suggests that physical characteristics of politicians such as their body-mass index can be used as proxy variables for political corruption when the latter is not available, for instance at a very local level,” the research stated.

Not to be confused with the famous Nobel Prize awarded to world-changing discoveries, the Ig-Nobel Prize (a parody of the French word “ignoble” meaning “disgusting” in French) honors achievements “that first make people laugh, then make them think,” according to the organizers. 

The prize has been hosted annually since 1991 and is organized by the scientific humor magazine “Annals of Improbable Research”. While satirical in nature, the research nominated has to follow rigorous methods to receive the awards handed out by former Nobel laureates. 

A year prior, Ukrainian scientists were awarded for their work proving that worms “vibrate like water.”

Other papers that won the tongue-in-cheek award this year included research on transporting a tranquilized rhinoceros upside down and analysis of cat-human communication. 

Due to COVID-19 restrictions in the U.S., the zany award ceremony took place online this year. Winners were sent a PDF print-out of their trophy that they must assemble themselves, and a counterfeit 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollar banknote. 

When asked what they would do with the “cash prize”, one researcher joked that they were “always looking for grant funding.”