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[Nickbat]

I found this fascinating. How are we guided by our preconceptions?

A group at Imperial College were shown a videotape of a completely false claim of a "snake oil" photovoltaic device, the production of which had been allegedly stymied by a Chinese conglomerate.

All of the undergraduates bought into it.

Only goes to show that we should all be somewhat cynical (like me  ) and demand real evidence.

http://refractiveindex.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/hoax-lies-and-videotape/

   

[Debs.]

I recall reading an article by a life-long confidence trickster, and he said that people 'wanted to be conned'.......greed, self-interest and naive-optimism combined to make people actively participate in schemes, which (to we cynics realists; Nick) would obviously be snake-oil selling.