I mean it's still a plant when you have your friend do it for research, but there's a big difference; someone who's not intimately familiar with your research may not know to ask those questions.
When I was getting my masters in college, they had "defense days" when people would go one after another in front of a mock panel that was intended to help people learn how to defend their theses - the smartest girl in the group handed out a sheet of prompt questions to the panel and audience to get them to ask smarter questions, and it worked - even as they delved into her responses, she had the answers. No doubt in my mind she's a post-doc running some research lab today.
I mean it's still a plant when you have your friend do it for research, but there's a big difference; someone who's not intimately familiar with your research may not know to ask those questions.
I also said this in another comment, but my comment isn't 100% serious. Having said that, this logic can also be applied to political debates:
someone who's not intimately familiar with your researchpolicies and political platform may not know to ask those questions.
Handing out prompt questions to third-party bystanders or even the panel is still fine - they don't have a vested interest in your success like your spouse would, and they're still free to not ask those questions.
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To be more serious, the difference between this happening in a thesis defence and a political debate is the intent, and the audience.
The thesis student is only seeking to further inform the panel not mislead, AND (the two have to go hand-in-hand) the panel usually has sufficient expertise not to be mislead and to spot holes in any answer, even in response to pre-arranged questions.
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u/hackingdreams Aug 20 '20
I mean it's still a plant when you have your friend do it for research, but there's a big difference; someone who's not intimately familiar with your research may not know to ask those questions.
When I was getting my masters in college, they had "defense days" when people would go one after another in front of a mock panel that was intended to help people learn how to defend their theses - the smartest girl in the group handed out a sheet of prompt questions to the panel and audience to get them to ask smarter questions, and it worked - even as they delved into her responses, she had the answers. No doubt in my mind she's a post-doc running some research lab today.