- Results 56 (80%) of the 70 teaspoons disappeared during the study. The half life of the teaspoons was 81 days. The half life of teaspoons in communal tearooms (42 days) was significantly shorter than for those in rooms associated with particular research groups (77 days). The rate of loss was not influenced by the teaspoons' value. The incidence of teaspoon loss over the period of observation was 360.62 per 100 teaspoon years. At this rate, an estimated 250 teaspoons would need to be purchased annually to maintain a practical institute-wide population of 70 teaspoons.
I'm actually more persuaded by the theory of universal displacement because at some point you have to reach saturation, where each person who wants another teaspoon at home has sufficient teaspoons. Could a follow up study please address worker turnover, visitor amounts and how many teaspoons does the average man need anyway? Actually it almost looks like a population graph in the programme-linked tearoom, where people believe there to be a minimum level of teaspoons required and anything above that is subject to being picked off. I believe with reintroduction of teaspoons, including teaspoon mating programs the graph would reflect a hunter-prey relationship between man and teaspoon. Of course that isn't applicable for communal tearooms, where people just take anything that isn't nailed to the ground. Edit: This has prompted more discussion in my household. Does the theft move onto forks and then knives? Forks can still be used as a teagbag extraction implement (TEI), but knives are substantially trickier.
I work in a large research lab. No matter how it is addressed, reagents and materials in community spaces are pilfered. I've noticed that if an item can be found in the same place over time, it disappears more quickly. I mislabel reagents, move them about, and just hide the ones that I need most.