Comment by nineplay | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nineplay | Hacker News Reader

I was talking about this a few weeks ago and realized I would eat the damn marshmallow. Researchers do not act in good faith. Maybe they're testing me for delayed gratification. Maybe they're measuring my anxiety levels as I wait for someone to come back with a promised reward. Maybe they want to know how angry I'd get if they come back and said they were out of marshmallows - or come back and flat out ate the marshmallow in front of me. A lot of researchers would happily trick me into thinking I was killing someone if they thought they could get away with it.

Its the truth that demolishes all the hand-waving about the marshmallow test - it relies on the subject's trust of the person running the experiment. I wouldn't trust them, why should anyone else?

When evaluated that way - particularly when testing on children - the outcome is painfully predictable.

- Children who have adults in life that they trust have better outcomes.

- Children who do not have adults in their lives who they trust have worse outcomes.

I was a subject in a college psychology experiment when I was an undergrad. The researcher said I would get some amount of $ for each new word in a sequence that I could correctly remember and repeat without error. I mentally made up a story and added each new word to the story. At the end they said that I remembered too many words, more than they had ever anticipated, it was too much $ for them to pay and gave me $5. Later I wondered whether the real experiment was about reacting to being tricked.

Just remember that the reason why Ted Kazinsky said he bombed the federal government was because he was subjected to MK Ultra experiments in college.

I'd say you got a good deal getting two dollars instead of life long trauma.

This has been theorized by his brother and others, but I'm not sure he ever claimed that. He wrote a lot of words in a pretty famous document as to why he bombed his targets, none of which were federal government targets.

Ted Kaczynski didn't bomb the federal government though.

I'd also be curious about a citation for his motivation being the MK Ultra experiments, it's news to me that he ever explicitly called those as a motive.

i think verbal contract law would apply here.

Having been in the former camp to such a heavy degree, I wouldn't have even thought of this dimension as a confounding variable, despite always trying to see that sort of thing.

Thank you for the insight.

Indeed, I couldn't really participate in psychology research because there is almost always an element of deception and I couldn't help but look for it.

One extreme example arguably created the Unabomber.[0]

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski#Psychological_st...

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