Comments on: Diary of an innocent man arrested – far from ideal http://idealgovernment.com/2005/09/diary_of_an_innocent_man_arrested_far_from_ideal/ What do we want from Internet-age government? Wouldn't it be better if... Wed, 14 May 2014 08:35:11 +0000 hourly 1 By: Kablenet http://idealgovernment.com/2005/09/diary_of_an_innocent_man_arrested_far_from_ideal/comment-page-1/#comment-541 Thu, 22 Sep 2005 15:58:06 +0000 http://diary_of_an_innocent_man_arrested_far_from_ideal#comment-541 Louise F writes: David’s experience seems to have significant parallels with a social psychology experiment conducted back in the 70s in the US. Researchers got themselves admitted to psychiatric hospitals by acting up, and then changed behaviour back to normal on admission. However, all this normal behaviour (things like writing letters) was interpreted by hospital staff as symtomatic of their so-called illness. Once a conclusion has been drawn, *any* behaviour or data seems to be interpreted as supportive of the conclusion/diagnosis already reached.

This seems to be the normal – human – state of affairs, how human minds work. The point being that there should be an awareness of this as a phenomenon, and measures and procedures in place that help prevent it from happening in circumstances such as these.

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