How to trick young people into driving like the elderly

Sometimes scientific experiments sound like pranks . pillow slip in point : a recent study that make do to turn a bunch of unseasoned men into the incarnation of every stereotype about old people drive . And all that was need was a ram simulator and some carefully choose words .

As potent as the mind is , it ’s remarkable just how easy it can be to hack . Here ’s how the experimentation worked :

Under the guise of evaluating a header - up exhibit in a driving simulator , 11 participants ( 5 man ) , years 21 to 35 years , completed beat - judgment of conviction tasks ( while look at stop signal ) designed to ground an elderly stereotype . Each driver completed both the Elderly Stereotype and Control condition with order counterbalanced across participants . Further , order of presentation of word set for each trial was random .

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Does n’t seem like all that much , does it ? And yet the “ senior ” word had a remarkable effect :

tug speed and driving time between stop signs in the Elderly Stereotype precondition were compared to the Control shape in which nonspecific eld words were substituted for elderly pigeonhole row . Participants showed lower maximal swiftness and longer driving meter in the Elderly Stereotype condition than in the Control condition , even though participant reported no cognisance of the paper in the experimental condition .

So , all you need to do is subconsciously put a stereotype in someone ’s judgment , and then they ’ll unwittingly start act as up to those expectations . I ’ve got no melodic theme when the ability to turn people into elderly drivers at will could possibly be utilitarian , but I ’m decidedly filing this one away for later .

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