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Got A Song Stuck In Your Head? Just Chew Gum

Most of us just grin and bear it, imagining there’s no way to get rid of an annoying jingle which seems to playing on a loop inside your brain

Gum
Gum

What do YOU do when you get a song stuck in your head?

Most of us just grin and bear it, imagining there’s no way to get rid of an annoying jingle which seems to playing on a loop inside your brain.

Now University of Reading scientists believe there may be a cure for ‘earworms’ - chewing gum.

In a (slightly odd) study, they found that people who chewed gum after hearing a song were around a third less likely to get the song stuck in their head.

Even more weirdly, if you chew gum while listening, you’re less likely to get songs stuck in there in the first place.

Scientists found this out by playing volunteers infuriatingly catchy songs such as Payphone by Maroon 5 - then getting them to press a button every time they thought of them.

 

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They now believe that the same technique could be used to help people stop thinking about other intrusive thoughts which they might want to forget.

‘Interfering with our own “inner speech” through a more sophisticated version of the gum-chewing approach may work more widely,’ said Dr Phil Beaman of the University of Reading.