I’m a sucker for stories of psychological experiments, especially ones containing the word ostensibly. You know, the ones where the subjects think the experiment is about one thing but really it’s about something else altogether.
Dave Munger at Cognitive Daily reports one such: We’re more likely to behave ethically when we see rivals behaving badly. Ok, the samples sizes don’t seem that big but the pattern is fascinating if it’s true. It appears people will cheat less if they see a rival (eg member of rival university) cheating.
LOL. Mark can add that to his collection of herd effects.