Would you defend an opinion that isn’t yours?
Say how much you agree with each statement. Then read over your answers.
The experiment starts as soon as the page has loaded (JavaScript is required).
Try the experiment: your result will appear here, next to what most people do.
What just happened (read it after the experiment)
What most people do: More than two people out of three let at least one reversed opinion slip by.
Two of your answers were reversed. Many people don’t notice, and argue with conviction for an opinion they never gave.
In 2012, Lars Hall, Petter Johansson and Thomas Strandberg had people fill in a questionnaire on moral issues, then discreetly reversed some of their answers: more than two participants out of three accepted at least one manipulated answer, and defended it.
We don’t always know why we think what we think. We explain it after the fact.
More experiments
Sources
- Lars Hall, Petter Johansson and Thomas Strandberg, “Lifting the veil of morality,” PLoS ONE, 2012.