But also, even among people who do evaluate it, there are many who will answer strategically… that is, something like “Of course the answer is A. But I believe that if I say A, my answer will be used to defend conclusions I disapprove of, whereas if I say B, my answer will be used to defend conclusions I approve of. So I will say B.”
Actually, I wonder now whether anyone has done studies of people’s linguistic processing when reading sentences like this. It probably would not be too difficult to determine whether the sentence is being parsed differently in the first place or not, and if so to establish potentially interesting specifics about how the “default” parsing is being interfered with.
(nods) I would expect so.
But also, even among people who do evaluate it, there are many who will answer strategically… that is, something like “Of course the answer is A. But I believe that if I say A, my answer will be used to defend conclusions I disapprove of, whereas if I say B, my answer will be used to defend conclusions I approve of. So I will say B.”
Actually, I wonder now whether anyone has done studies of people’s linguistic processing when reading sentences like this. It probably would not be too difficult to determine whether the sentence is being parsed differently in the first place or not, and if so to establish potentially interesting specifics about how the “default” parsing is being interfered with.