Well, the most obvious is that people not in the same field are bad at detecting expertise. But I suppose there are even more—one could blame the audience as much as you blame the subject, that is, psychology professors :P Or you could guess at response bias—maybe people are bad at admitting they didn’t understand something.
Those are not the only two plausible hypotheses, particularly because the phony expert was presenting to psychology professors et al.
What would be the alternative hypotheses according to you?
Well, the most obvious is that people not in the same field are bad at detecting expertise. But I suppose there are even more—one could blame the audience as much as you blame the subject, that is, psychology professors :P Or you could guess at response bias—maybe people are bad at admitting they didn’t understand something.