A pair of Australian researchers have won the equivalent of science’s top booby prize for studying the effects of proximity to crocodiles on gambling behavior.

Thursday night saw the awarding of the 27th annual Ig Nobel prizes, the tongue-in-cheek awards for the most pointless and/or WTF scientific studies to have been somehow been funded, conducted and published.

Among this year’s recipients were Central Queensland University professors Matthew Rockloff and Nancy Greer, who wanted to know if gamblers made riskier choices on an electronic gaming machine (EGM) after having held a one-meter saltwater crocodile.

Their 2010 study, Never Smile at a Crocodile: Betting on Electronic Gaming Machines is Intensified by Reptile-Induced Arousal, involved 103 men and women who agreed to play a laptop-simulated EGM either (a) prior to taking a tour of a local crocodile farm or (b) immediately after the subject held a crocodile. The croc had its jaw taped shut, although the subjects were warned that the beast was still dangerous.