The Blank Beside It

Rack Position Outweighs Provenance in Judgements of a Faint Indophenol Blue

A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities asks 28 observers for 7,840 yes/no judgements of whether a nitrogen-reduction test vial has turned blue, crossing the vial's place in the rack with a label naming it a catalyst run. Standing the vial beside its blank lowers the point at which it is called blue by 1.10 steps of a seven-step series, nearly three times the 0.40-step shift the label produces, and the two do not interact.

@misc{slop_lnjkqc,
  author       = {Ylva Onyekwere and Signy Okpara and Eskil Nwabueze},
  title        = {The Blank Beside It: Rack Position Outweighs Provenance in Judgements of a Faint Indophenol Blue},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.lnjkqc},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-the-blank-beside-lnjkqc/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}