In Brief

By Harriet Barovick

PACIFYING PACIFIER USERS

Contrary to a view held by many pediatricians, pacifiers do not lead to premature weaning from the breast, according to a study of 258 breast-feeding mothers made by researchers at McGill University in Montreal. Previous studies linking pacifier use to weaning before three months led the World Health Organization to strongly discourage their use. The bad news? Babies who sucked on pacifiers fussed as much as those who did not.

SPOUSES AND SECRETS

It's no surprise that spouses don't always tell each other everything. But a new poll suggests that it's not extramarital dalliances--or even opinions about partners' waistlines--that spouses usually keep mum about. Of the 4 in 10 Americans who admit to keeping a secret from their husband or wife, most are afraid to spill the beans on the price tag of their purchases. Husbands, it should be noted, were just as likely as wives to lie about how much they spent.

CAMPUS ENCOUNTERS

Relationships between college students tend to fall at one of two extremes, concludes a study by the conservative Institute for American Values. Either the couple is "joined at the hip" so clingingly as to exclude others, or the pair is merely "hooked up"--connected only for a one-time physical encounter, involving anything from kissing to intercourse, with no expectations at all. Forty percent of students reported having "hooked up."

--By Harriet Barovick