“Acting is all about honesty,” said comedian George Burns. “If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” According to recent research, however, his punch line is all wrong. It should be, “If you can fake that, you become a fake yourself.” Not as witty, I grant you, but it’s borne out by an intriguing experiment involving 85 college students, fake $300 sunglasses, and some simple arithmetic.
When these students (all female) showed up at the Center for Decision Research at the University of North Carolina, they were told they’d be part of a marketing study evaluating different pairs of sunglasses. They also were told that, in addition to receiving their $1 participant’s fee, they could earn up to $24 more. They started by looking at pictures of a range of products — some counterfeit, some real — and answering questions about them.
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