Regarding the Feynmann quote, I suspect that behavior itself is intrinsic to humans.  Few people want to be the guy coming up with a wildly different answer from a consensus&#x2F;authoritative answer.  We see the same thing in election polling results exhibiting &#x27;herding&#x27;.  If a pollster has a result wildly off from the polling average (especially, near the election when the variance is expected to be lower), they&#x27;ll sometimes &#x27;put a thumb on the scale&#x27; as fivethirtyeight[0] put it.  This makes some sense, from a CYA perspective even if not from a scientific one.  If they publish an outlier and are wrong, they look bad.  If they publish close to the average and are wrong, well, at least everyone else missed it too.<p>[0] - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;fivethirtyeight.com&#x2F;features&#x2F;heres-proof-some-pollsters-are-putting-a-thumb-on-the-scale&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;fivethirtyeight.com&#x2F;features&#x2F;heres-proof-some-pollste...</a>