A university student delivers a pizza to an old man’s house. “I suppose you want a tip?” says the old man.
“That would be great,” says the student, “but the other guy who does deliveries told me not to expect too much – he said if I got 50p, I’d be lucky.”
The old man looks hurt. “Well, to prove him wrong, here’s £5. What are you studying?”
“Applied psychology,” replies the student.

There is no doubt that reading about (and really thinking through the implications of) psychological research can make us see the patterns of life around us and therefore act more effectively and (hopefully) with fairness to others.

Sound psychological knowledge can make us more effective. This article briefly looks at whether psychologists teaching jurors about human suggestibility is useful.

I’d say that once people understand the rules in influence and how suggestibility works then they can become ‘inoculated’ to some extent and be more likely to really ’see clearly what is going on’ and least if they can keep a clear head. In the bystander apathy article I cite research that shows people who are taught about the principle of bystander apathy develop considerable ‘immunity’ to it.

Mark