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The second comment on that page is the first thing I thought of.

Sensational headline, obvious results. Nothing much to see here, folks...




Sensational[ist] headline - agreed.

Obvious result. Not so sure as I don't agree that the interesting result is that being spun from the paper (of which I've only read a detailed review and an abstract as it's paywalled).

The takeaway point for me, that harkened back to Milgram's Experiments and the like, was that the person running the experiment was able to induce in the subjects entirely different behaviour simply by saying the level of authority that the people they were hearing [supposedly] had.

To recapitulate they alter their critical consideration according to the level of authority claimed for the speaker by a third party. It is the authority of the scientist that swings the whole thing.


But aren't these conclusions already in widespread use 24 hrs of the day, from infomercial and advertisements, to talking heads in news and media?




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