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2 days ago
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posted May 29 @ 04:04 PM by Jason Kottke · gift link
In this video, a writer named Hannah shares an experiment her Intro to Psychology professor ran on her class. Here’s a transcript:
It’s 11 years ago, I’m in a massive university Intro to Psychology class. Everybody in my 250-person lecture is freaking out because it’s the last class before the exams and none of us are ready. Professor says, “you know what, you guys seem stressed. I’m just gonna give all of you a 95%, blanket across the board — but you have to vote unanimously on it.”
He puts the poll on the board. We vote. 20 people say, “nope, I don’t want the guaranteed 95%”.
He puts another poll up that’s just like, why? Option A is: I selected the 95% because I want it. B: I think I could do better. C: I don’t want a grade I didn’t deserve. D: I don’t want somebody else to get the same grade as me even if they didn’t study as much. And all 20 people who didn’t want the 95% didn’t want it for that last reason.
The professor said, “this is the most important psychological lesson I will teach you this semester. I’ve been doing this experiment on classes for the past 10 years and not one class has agreed unanimously because there’s always somebody who doesn’t want someone to have what they have because they don’t think they deserve it. Statistically only 10 of you will get a 95% or above.” Because in life, greed will always hurt you more than it helps you.
This explains the people who are mad about student loan forgiveness. Seems like that 8% is who’s running the country right now.
