I just finished a Twitter conversation about Ben Carson’s Yale psychology test story, and I want to pass along a point that I think too many people don’t get. The core of Carson’s story isn’t really about how he endured the hoax test longer than anyone else. It’s about how he was more honest than the others. 
Here’s the relevant section of Gifted Hands:
As I stared at the questions, I couldn’t believe them either. They were incredibly difficult, if not impossible.
….“Forget it,” I heard one girl say to another. “Let’s go back and study this. We can say we didn’t read the notice.”…. Immediately three others packed away their papers….Soon half the class was gone, and the exodus continued.
….Within half an hour from the time the examination began, I was the only student left in the room. Like the others, I was tempted to walk out, but I had read the notice, and I couldn’t lie and say I hadn’t. All the time I wrote my answers, I prayed for God to help me figure what to put down. I paid no more attention to departing footsteps.
Suddenly the door of the classroom opened noisily….”What’s going on?” I asked. “A hoax,” the teacher said. “We wanted to see who was the most honest student in the class.” She smiled again. “And that’s you.”
But why would the hoaxsters tell him he was the most honest person in the class? To them, it was just a prank. The bit about honesty derives solely from Carson hearing the conversation behind him. This is, however, the core of his story—and no matter what else we find out, it’s almost certainly been invented out of whole cloth.
Which is, of course, pretty ironic.
