lately i’ve been interested in what social good can be achieved by spam. ron plotnikoff led a study entitled Efficacy of an e-mail intervention for the promotion of physical activity and nutrition behavior in the workplace context which looked at the effect of unsolicited emails promoting healthy behaviors on the health of recipients. people who received the healthy spam increased physical activity, reduced the body-mass index and were more open to diet change (whereas the control group gained weight). seems that spam not only caters to our basest instincts, it can motivate them in the first place.