People now prefer pizza to their friends, study shows

Pizza is up there as one of the most enjoyable things in life.

If you scoffed at that sentiment, you might be surprised to learn that we actually prefer the cheese covered doughy treat to our own friends.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offered free pizza to a group of people. But there was a catch: they had to give up their friends’ email addresses in exchange. A whopping 98 per cent of participants still decided to go ahead with the deal.

This is despite the fact that 74 per cent of Americans say it’s very important to have control of their own personal information.

When it comes to pizza, we're willing to let our morals go, apparently. But who needs friends when you have warm, cheesy pizza to keep you company?

The study stated:

Whereas people say they care about privacy, they are willing to relinquish private data quite easily when incentivised to do so.

The results highlight how small incentives such as a cheese pizza can have a large effect on decisions about privacy.

[It is] important to rethink how consent is given in all these applications, mostly to make sure that consumers are actually making a choice consistent with their preferences.

As more of our lives are becoming digital, making sure we have control over how and when our data is used will become more important over time. 

Love fades, but pizza is forever. Just don't eat it like Donald Trump... That's just strange.

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