California Watch

A UC Santa Barbara professor made a small but significant finding in the field of evolutionary psychology a few months ago that escalated into an international sensation over the weekend.

It's a story that could have ended with an angry mob of blond women chasing him with pitchforks. “I haven’t had that happen yet,” said the psychologist, Aaron Sell, "but who knows."

Here’s what did happen.

Sell and a team of researchers embarked on a study to learn more about the nature of anger, submitting a lengthy survey to nearly 300 men and women.

Their findings? Women who consider themselves particularly attractive are quicker to anger, as they tend to have a greater sense of entitlement. Men share that trait with women, and men who report that they are physically strong are also more quick to anger.

The findings were published in the September issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences without overwhelming fanfare.

And then a reporter from the Times of London called Sell seeking to test a theory of whether blondes held an even greater sense of entitlement than brunettes.

Willing to help the reporter, Sell went back to his data and found that no such phenomenon exists. He communicated as much via e-mail, Sell said.

Before the professor gave it another thought, the headline appeared in the Times of London: “Blonde Women Born to Be Warrior Princesses.”