Me. Welcome to the You Are Not So Smart Podcast.

Episode 3. Oh, In the late 1970s, two scientists set up an experiment in a shopping center and unknowingly

passers-by became part of one of the more revelatory experiments in all of the history of psychology.

Here's how the experiment worked. They set up a table and on that table they posted a sign. The sign read

Institute for Social Research Consumer Evaluation Survey, which is the best

quality. And on top of the table they hung four selections of nylon

stocking panios about three feet apart. The guys behind this study Timothy

to Camp Wilson, Richard E. Nisbet, and their helpers,

they ask people as they walked by.

If they would be interested in taking a look at the stockings and then telling them which one

they thought out of the before was the best quality.

Most of the people who said yes were ladies and after they had examined the stockings

thoroughly the experimenters would ask those people to pick their favorite and explain why they picked it.

After they explained, the subject explained, the experimenters asked again, is there any reason,

any other reason why you picked the one that you picked?

And some people would add more answers and some people would just elaborate on what they had said.

So, after all of this had been done, the scientists gathered up all their data and all the explanations

and they found that

most people said they picked the one that had the best shearness or weave or the best toe

area they would say they liked the one that they chose because it had the best knit or texture or color or something like that

But not one person in the experiment

Not one subject said they picked the one on the right, which is odd because that is exactly what most people did.

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