How many people end up paying for something because they couldn't be bothered to cancel the deal after the free period is gone? It's an age-old sales tactic, used in everything from magazine subscription to Spotify (of not cancelling the last one when I no longer needed it I'm guilty myself).

And I think the mental equivalent of drinking bird is actually very much in the spirit of the experiment - the point is, people can't reliably do even something as simple as deciding to refuse no matter what and keeping the commitment.

How many of those people were high-IQ timeshare experts though, with extensive knowledge of the potential for timeshares to destroy the entire universe?

You would think that the various self-knowledge and introspective exercises promoted by yudowsky would immunize people against simple timeshare-style persuasion. This is why I think he uses rationalism itself to trap people. Like someone said, the basilisk thing seemed pretty effective.