BBC Radio 4 aficionados (I’m not middle-aged, middle-class and middle-of-the-road at all, really) will know of continuity announcer, Charlotte Green, she of the dusky voice and velvet tones. But how tall is she?
This was the question posed by Professor Neil Stewart from Warwick University of Claudia Hammond during her with him interview during All in the Mind, a splendid series on, well, BBC Radio 4. Claudia had never met Charlotte, but before giving her guess Neil asked her if she believed that Charlotte was more or less than six inches tall. The point he made was that the final guess would be less than if he first asked her if she thought Charlotte was shorter or taller than nine feet. How we pose questions can suggest how we think and behave, he proffers.