clever experiment by ellen lerner. imagine there's someone using the xerox and you'd like to ask permission to use the xerox before them.

if you say, "excuse me, i have five pages. can i use the xerox because i'm in a rush?", she finds that 94% of people will let you.

if you say, "excuse me, i have five pages. can i use the xerox?", only about 60% of people will let you.

well, it may seem obvious that it's because the first one carries with it a legitimate reason.

BUT if you say, "excuse me, i have five pages. can i use the xerox because i need to make some copies?", still around 93% of people will let you and you haven't provided any more of a legitimate of a reason than you did in the second request.

now, the story actually seems to say that if you just use the word, "because", people will automatically assume you have a legitimate reason.

weird, but true.