The subject enters a room in which a 12-year-old boy is seated. A 20-minute conversation ensues. The subject quizzes the boy about current events and other topics to get a sense of his intelligence and personality. But the boy is not what he appears to be.

Unbeknownst to the subject, the boy is wearing a radio receiver in his ear, and every word he says is transmitted to him by a 37-year-old university professor sitting in a nearby room. For his age, the boy has surprisingly well-informed opinions about the effects of austerity measures on the European economy. He speaks of his admiration of Dostoyevsky. Yet not a single subject suspects that his words are not his own.

The study, conducted by two social psychologists at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and published earlier this month in The Journal of Social Psychology, raises some fascinating psychological and philosophical questions, and the researchers hope it will open new directions of study.

‘Cyranoids are people who do not speak thoughts originating in their own central nervous system.’

“Beyond the physical, we like to believe that there’s some element in all of us that’s a permanent part of our nature,” said co-author Kevin Corti. We like to think we can recognize that element in other people, and they can recognize it in us. But these findings suggest we are easily fooled. In future research, Corti and his co-author, Alex Gillespie, plan to repeat the experiment with people who already know each other.

Read more here If Someone Secretly Controlled What You Say, Would Anyone Notice?

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