Dumb, dumber, dumbest... you pick the winner here:
1. A museum guard when asked the age of certain dinosaur bones said 60,000,005 years. "But how can they know this so precisely?" the visitor wondered. "I don't know, but when I started working here I was told they were 60 million years old, and that was five years ago."
2. So many fans of "Star Trek's" Spock confused Leonard Nimoy with his on-screen persona that the actor felt impelled to write a book, "I Am Not Spock."
3. Following the movie "Forrest Gump," viewers began showing up in droves at Gump's supposed alma mater, the University of Alabama, asking to see his football trophies.
4. Shortly after the switch to daylight savings time one spring, a Colorado woman complained to a local newspaper that the extra hour of sunlight was burning up her lawn.
5. Terming this type of mental inertia "mindlessness," Ellen Langer had students approach users at photocopy machines with one of three requests: "Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine?" "Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine, because I have to make copies?" "Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine, because I'm in a rush?" Normally, people demand a good reason before letting someone cut in front of them, but here the "mindless" second reason worked as well as the legitimate-sounding third.
A. They're all winners (losers?), along with many others. The above examples were provided by Professors John D. McGervey, Carol Wade and Carol Tavris.
1. A museum guard when asked the age of certain dinosaur bones said 60,000,005 years. "But how can they know this so precisely?" the visitor wondered. "I don't know, but when I started working here I was told they were 60 million years old, and that was five years ago."
2. So many fans of "Star Trek's" Spock confused Leonard Nimoy with his on-screen persona that the actor felt impelled to write a book, "I Am Not Spock."
3. Following the movie "Forrest Gump," viewers began showing up in droves at Gump's supposed alma mater, the University of Alabama, asking to see his football trophies.
4. Shortly after the switch to daylight savings time one spring, a Colorado woman complained to a local newspaper that the extra hour of sunlight was burning up her lawn.
5. Terming this type of mental inertia "mindlessness," Ellen Langer had students approach users at photocopy machines with one of three requests: "Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine?" "Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine, because I have to make copies?" "Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine, because I'm in a rush?" Normally, people demand a good reason before letting someone cut in front of them, but here the "mindless" second reason worked as well as the legitimate-sounding third.
A. They're all winners (losers?), along with many others. The above examples were provided by Professors John D. McGervey, Carol Wade and Carol Tavris.
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