Unfortunately, losing the ability to detect the subtle social clues that help you know when you’re being doused with sarcasm or even dissed with a big fat lie may actually be an early warning sign of dementia, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.
The scientists, who reported their findings at a recent meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, have discovered that a certain type of neurodegenerative disease may chip away at the ability to understand the social, physical and verbal cues that help people recognize indirect language, such as sarcasm, and even deceit.
“These are the patients who fall for all the online scams, and lose all their money, because they just don’t get the lie,” said lead author Katherine Rankin, a neuropsychologist in the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, who led the new study. “They don’t understand sarcasm. They would think ‘The Colbert Report’ is real.”
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Are you certain this didn’t come from The Onion? 😉
These are the people who, after the voucherization of Medicare, are going to enter the confusing and deceptive health insurance market and negotiate reductions in our healthcare costs. They’re the ones Republicans are counting on to lower costs.
You mean “The Colbert Report” ISN’T real?!