Well, here's something to think about. I've to sit an online employment profiling diagnostic test in a couple of weeks, for the Department for Work and Pensions' Work Programme. It's to help them match me up with jobs in the most appropriate fields.
My new mentor told me that this test would involve agreeing or disagreeing with questions such as "Adverts contain hidden messages."
So what would you do posed with such a question? Because some adverts actually have used subliminal images and messages and other subtly pursuasive and sometimes questionable psychological techniques, then (since there is no means by which to qualify or clarify my responses) the honest answer would be "agree". That should at least get me a a +1 on the scale of honesty, one would vainly hope.
Now, if the assessor is also aware of this possibility, then my response would be fine and dandy. But if s/he is not, then I could potentially be profiled as a "conspiracy theorist" or "crackpot". Given that, is it wiser to disagree – feigning ignorance – at the risk of being diagosed instead as "ignorant"? And if I were to express my uncertainty, would the diagnosis be "indecisive"?
God, I love this boffinry. Or is that buffoonery?