[Jordrok]

I think what made those 'work' wasn't that 'good people turned bad' or 'a few bad apples abused the mechanism', but rather that everyone involved just went along with the prank to an irresponsible degree.

This is an important point. I guess this is kind of of a difficult thing to control for while still staying within the boundaries of experimental ethics.

As a side note, personally I think this idea of 'going along with a prank to an irresponsible degree' also goes quite a long way towards explaining the current political situation in the US...