ohyesrobot.ordoliberal.com

2009-07-19

Original: 2009-07-19 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Transcript

Panel 1:
An older man with glasses, holding papers, addresses a group of seated people.
Older man: I have a confession. You weren't actually taking personality surveys. This was a psychological experiment to see if you'd lie about yourself.

Panel 2:
A blonde woman holding papers responds to the older man.
Blonde woman: No, no, I have a confession. You weren't actually teaching students. It was a psychological experiment to see if you could be convinced that you had professional credentials.

Panel 3:
A man with red/ginger hair and glasses speaks up from among the group.
Ginger-haired man: No, sorry, I have a confession. I was conducting an experiment to see if you would deceive a person into thinking he was a psychologist.

Panel 4:
The older man and a man with brown hair face each other.
Brown-haired man: But... I was conducting an experiment on you to see if a professor would change behavior when pretending to be a student.

Panel 5:
The blonde woman and the older man, both looking distressed.
Older man: But then...
Blonde woman: How could...

Panel 6:
The brown-haired man, alarmed, with motion/shock marks.
Brown-haired man: Who started the experiment?

Panel 7:
Three people in lab coats stand watching a screen that displays the group of confused people. The screen shows the distressed faces from the previous panels.
Observer: Good. Just as expected.

Votey:
A close-up monitor/screen image of the older bald man with glasses, looking sad and resigned, rendered in flat blue monochrome with scuffs across the screen.

Alt text

A seven-panel comic. Panel 1: an older man in glasses holding papers tells a seated group, "I have a confession. You weren't actually taking personality surveys. This was a psychological experiment to see if you'd lie about yourself." Panel 2: a blonde woman replies, "No, no, I have a confession. You weren't actually teaching students. It was a psychological experiment to see if you could be convinced that you had professional credentials." Panel 3: a ginger-haired man in glasses says, "No, sorry, I have a confession. I was conducting an experiment to see if you would deceive a person into thinking he was a psychologist." Panel 4: a brown-haired man counters, "But... I was conducting an experiment on you to see if a professor would change behavior when pretending to be a student." Panel 5: the older man and blonde woman, distressed, stammer "But then..." and "How could...". Panel 6: the brown-haired man, alarmed, asks "Who started the experiment?" Panel 7: three people in lab coats watch a monitor showing the confused group, and one says, "Good. Just as expected" - revealing the whole nested chain of deceptions was itself a higher experiment. Votey: a blue monochrome close-up on the older bald man's sad, resigned face shown on a scuffed monitor screen.

Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.