Apparently, according to Boing Boing (and researchers at University "Gabriele d'Annunzio" in Chieti,Italy, people are more apt to respond affirmatively if you direct your query to their right ears. After a series of studies, using clubbers in a noisy bar as test subjects, with the objective of bumming the most things-that-your-children-will-never-smoke-but-labbits-do, the right ear won.
I will conduct my own experiment at home in my noisy house and see which daughter i can persuade to eat her vegetables, skip dessert and go to bed on schedule