[dkarl]

I have a friend who is a doctor and works two weekends a month at a clinic in a poor area. (I think it's so poor that the clinic is closed on the weekends when he's not there.) Part of his job is having the right demeanor that people will trust him and actually follow his advice. That means projecting authority, the old-fashioned confidence and slightly superior air that people probably expected from a doctor in the 19th century. He interacts differently with educated patients; they ask him all kinds of things, and he doesn't pretend to be any more wise or knowledgeable than his training makes him. The less educated ones are likely to say nothing, nod respectfully, and then possibly not follow his advice at all if he didn't sufficiently impress them. (For example, they might drive ten minutes across the border into Mexico, buy three days' worth of antibiotics, and not interact with a doctor again until their condition gets much worse.)

I can only imagine the awkwardness when he mistakes one kind of patient for the other.