Let's get quizzical - why do we love quizzes so much?

Gwen Loughman discovers that quizzing is more popular than ever and participation brings a whole load of positive social boosts and benefits

Pic: iStock

Picture the scene. You are in a room with dozens of other people, numbered sheets of paper in front of you all. Mobile phones are very much frowned upon but it is permissible to have a hydrating drink and snack on the table. Rather than being questioned on Pythagoras theorem you could, instead, be asked to identify the first couple shown in bed together on prime-time television. (Fred and Wilma Flintstone in case you were wondering.) And after approximately three hours, you are free to go.

It sounds alarmingly like sitting the Leaving Certificate all over again, but in a lovely twist of good fortune, you are, in actual fact, down the local taking part in the monthly pub quiz.