<p>There was a study in the 1960s that presented alternately two plausible hypotheses, I think about the influence of socioeconomic class on something. The subjects were shown fake experimental evidence to support one of them, after which they thought it was obvious that the one shown was true.</p>

<p>The basic result was to show, how easy it is for us to be convinced by any story if it is made to sound plausible.</p>

<p>Can anyone help me find this paper? I can't remember where I saw this short summary of it, but it is likely a textbook example. What's been done on the topic since then?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-02T17:24:51.553Z
Hmmm...  This is an example of hindsight bias (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindsight_bias), but this bias wasn't really studied until the 1970s, so not sure if that's what you're looking for...
Arnon Weinberg
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-03T13:59:19.990Z
Thanks for the suggestion! These are quite similar results. The difference I can see is perhaps that this experiment was made to manipulate the plausibility of the evidence directly. I think it was in the 1960s and under some different term - also saying that not much of this kind of research has been done later. While I can use the Hindsight bias in similar cases, I'd keep the question open as I think this was not that.
puslet88
<cognitive-psychology><memory><reference-request>
Classic 1960s experiment on "post hoc" / "obvious after the fact" bias
puslet88
# Classic 1960s experiment on "post hoc" / "obvious after the fact" bias

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-09-02)

There was a study in the 1960s that presented alternately two plausible hypotheses, I think about the influence of socioeconomic class on something. The subjects were shown fake experimental evidence to support one of them, after which they thought it was obvious that the one shown was true.

The basic result was to show, how easy it is for us to be convinced by any story if it is made to sound plausible.

Can anyone help me find this paper? I can't remember where I saw this short summary of it, but it is likely a textbook example. What's been done on the topic since then?

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, memory, reference-request

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hmmm...  This is an example of hindsight bias (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindsight_bias), but this bias wasn't really studied until the 1970s, so not sure if that's what you're looking for...  
> **username_0**: Thanks for the suggestion! These are quite similar results. The difference I can see is perhaps that this experiment was made to manipulate the plausibility of the evidence directly. I think it was in the 1960s and under some different term - also saying that not much of this kind of research has been done later. While I can use the Hindsight bias in similar cases, I'd keep the question open as I think this was not that.  

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