Free Rice

I was on line reading different blogs that I enjoy when I found something on Ramblin Educat's blog that struck a chord in me. Her latest blog entry is for a website called Free Rice. The gist of the site is that you play a word game, much like the vocabulary section of the SAT or GRE, and for each answer you get correct, 20 grains of rice is donated to people who need it world wide. While increasing your vocabulary, you also help feed the hungry people of the world. The website FAQ's explain that it is paid for by advertising on the site and that the rice is distributed through the United Nations World Food Program. Maybe because I am from the "feed the world" generation or maybe because the idea behind the site seems to be so perfect and so simple, I have quickly become addicted to Free Rice.

I think that there are a few good psychological and sociological studies that could come from this concept through tracking the usage of the site by individuals; better yet, through surveys that measure whether the site keeps people coming back for philanthropic reasons, or whether it is the self-competition to increase your vocabulary/score that keeps people coming back. They might even be able to generate some more financing for their site through the universities that would fund the studies.