News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Want people to trust you? Try apologising for the rain. Parent comment

Re:Want people to trust you? Try apologising for the rain by bcoates on Friday October 18, 2013 @06:02PM (#6574300)
Right, but "any kind of icebreaker" is a superset of "superfluous apology". It's a hypothetical extension of the result, not a flaw in the study.

Saying there was no proper control condition is flat wrong. There is a control in the study that would falsify the hypothesis that they were testing.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Want people to trust you? Try apologising for the rain by tempestn on Friday October 18, 2013 @07:40PM (#6574651)
No, there isn't. The hypothesis they were testing was whether a superfluous apology would increase the likelihood of strangers behaving in the desired manner. All they proved is that making a lead-in comment had this effect. We have no way of knowing whether it was because the lead-in comment was an apology, or if a broader range of comments would have had the same effect.
[ Parent | on HN ]