I agree that phrase of mine might a bit too strong. But I think a lot of cynics under-estimate the degree to which people want to be rational and unbiased.

I had one experience with an extremly smart person, which politically influential parents and maybe a future political career on her own who once quite explicetly said, that's what she was doing after she read a room wrongly and excused for that (it wasn't a even a public event but party internal).

I didn't get this anecdote, which sounded interesting.