‘The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute’ – a retrospective

Funny, yes but this is no April Fool’s, it is rather a tip of the hat to a light-hearted, 20-year-old paper that still has rather good study design

In 2005, a team from the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health in Melbourne, Australia, published a study they had conducted to investigate the disappearance of teaspoons over time in their workplace.

Submitted to The BMJ – formerly known as the British Medical Journal – it appeared on newsstands on December 22, 2005, in the publication’s Christmas issue which had become known for its festive season content being both light-hearted while remaining scientifically rigorous.

As the paper explained, the Australian study team’s aim was to quantify the rate of teaspoon loss at the Burnet Institute and explore the range of factors which were influencing the spoon’s attrition.

Discreetly labelling 70 teaspoons – 54 ‘standard’ and 16 ‘high-quality’ – the team distributed them across a variety of tearooms and kitchens within the institute. Over the course of five months, weekly audits were conducted to monitor the presence (or absence) of these smallest of utensils. By the study’s conclusion, 56 teaspoons – 80% – had shockingly vanished altogether.

What is a longitudinal study?

Not just for fun, the research remains a good example of longitudinal study design. The study used repeated measures to follow particular individuals – in this case, teaspoons – over a prolonged period of time. Studies such as these are typically observational in nature: the science occurs by simply watching and gathering data over a period of time.

This study type can be useful to evaluate relationships between risk factors and the development of disease and therefore the outcomes of a variety of treatments over different lengths of time.

Tracking teaspoons dematerialisation

In the study, the main questions posed by the research team were twofold:

• Measure overall rate of loss of teaspoons.
• Determine how long it took for teaspoons to go missing.

As the researchers wrote in the paper:

“In January 2004, the authors found their tearoom bereft of teaspoons. Although a flunky was rapidly dispatched to purchase a new batch, these replacements in turn disappeared within a few months. Exasperated by our consequent inability to stir in our sugar and to accurately dispense instant coffee, we decided to respond in time honoured epidemiologists' fashion and measure the phenomenon.”

The researchers at the Burnet Institute undertook the project after noticing that teaspoons seemed to vanish mysteriously from their workplace, leading to tea and coffee-making frustration. Rather than accepting it as an unsolvable mystery, they applied scientific methods to investigate the phenomenon.

70 teaspoons were purchased and divided into two types – ‘standard’ and ‘high-quality’ – and each one was discretely numbered and distributed throughout the institute.

Teaspoon counts were made weekly for the first two months, then every second week until the study concluded at five months. Aside from tearoom and kitchen storage, other openly visible surfaces were also checked in case any spoons had been ‘misplaced’.

Good study design

This type of data collection provides a straightforward example of good longitudinal study, in that:

• It took place over a prolonged period – 5 months.
• It was observational – no intervention; teaspoons were merely counted.
• No external influence – users of teaspoons were unaware of the study until its conclusion.

At the end of the five months of covert research, the study was revealed to the institute. Staff members were asked to return or anonymously report any marked teaspoons which may – inadvertently or otherwise – have ‘disappeared’, be that into desk draws, private dwellings or other locations.

Morale hazard

This light-hearted yet methodical investigation garnered widespread attention, resonating with many who have experienced similar frustrations in their workplaces. It serves as a reminder of the small, often overlooked factors that can influence daily workplace dynamics.

The study concluded that the rapid disappearance of workplace teaspoons posed a continual threat to their availability, potentially impacting office culture and morale. The researchers humorously suggested that this phenomenon might be a global issue, highlighting the challenges of maintaining communal resources in shared environments.

By the numbers

Results showed a startlingly high loss rate – 80% of the spoons disappeared, and the calculated ‘half-life’ of a teaspoon was 81 days. The half-life refers to the time it takes for half of a given quantity to disappear or decay. The researchers applied this idea to teaspoons modelling spoon disappearance using a form of exponential decay, where loss happens at a consistent proportional rate over time.

By fitting the disappearance data to this model, they calculated the half-life to be 81 days for all teaspoons. Interestingly, when analysed by tearoom type:

• Communal tearooms had a faster half-life of 42 days.
• Departmental-only tearooms had a slower rate of 77 days.

It was therefore notable that shared spaces accelerated the phenomenon. Although, the assigned value of the teaspoons did not affect the rate of loss in a statistically significantly way, it was seen that ‘standard’ teaspoons did disappear at a faster rate than those of ‘high value’. Perceived levels of prestige may have influenced target thefts, therefore. Further studies would be required to examine this observation.

But at the rate of attrition seen, an estimate was made in order to maintain a steady-state population of 70 teaspoons within the institute would require the purchase of 250 new spoons annually.

Peer review

Its publication in 2005 garnered widespread attention, being a blend of scientific inquiry and everyday office humour. Over the past two decades, the study has continued to resonate, prompt discussions, and follow-up studies with a lasting presence in popular culture. The BMJ featured letters to the editor addressing the findings:

• Teaspoons’ return: Katherine Darton noted that teaspoons might ‘go on awaydays’ to later return, suggesting that temporary absences could affect the study’s conclusions
• Alternative uses: David A. Silver highlighted that teaspoons can be assigned purposes beyond the mere stirring of warm beverages. Examples given were propping open doors and prying open file cabinets, so suggesting that spoon loss might be due to a permanent form of repurposing utility.
• Global phenomenon: Bertrand Herer shared observations from a French hospital where 1,800 spoons had disappeared over the course of five months, which supported the notion that teaspoon disappearance is a worldwide issue.

The final stirring thought

The researchers themselves humorously speculated on possible causes for this rampant spoon disappearance. Could there be a ‘teaspoon migration’ pattern, with spoons seeking out new environments? Or perhaps ‘spoon-napping’ by opportunistic colleagues? The study concluded that maintaining spoon supplies required ongoing replenishment and acknowledged the broader workplace challenge of communal resources disappearing over time.

This offbeat investigation struck a chord worldwide, sparking media attention and has been cited in discussions about workplace culture, the management of communal resources, and resonating deeply with office workers who’d long feared a secret cutlery black hole in every workplace.*

However, it strikes this author that a further criticism of the study may be that in fact the project was by nature interventional. Adding an additional 70 teaspoons, into what had previously been a closed system, may have led to a perceived 'surfeit of spoons'. This, in turn, may have lowered the ‘threshold of theft’ for the average unwitting research institute employee/study participant.

Twenty years on, the Disappearing Teaspoons study still serves as a funny yet insightful commentary on human behaviour and the behavioural challenges of humans confined for many hours a day in shared spaces.

* Editor’s note – it is now thought that all cutlery eventually returns upstream to its spiritual birthplace in the steel city of Sheffield to spawn anew.