Does giving a reason why really make patients more likely to say yes? It does, and the science is almost funny. Ellen Langer ran a study in 1978 at a Xerox machine, the one everyone calls the copier study. A researcher cut to the front of the line. When she just asked to use the machine, about 60 percent let her. When she added a reason, because I am in a rush, compliance jumped to 94 percent. Then they tested a nonsense reason, because I have to make some copies, which says nothing at all, and compliance stayed almost as high. [...]