Answer: the contestants and observers thought the questioners were more knowledgeable than the contestants.
Explanation: Ross et al published a paper in the journal of personality and social psychology in 1977 titled
"Social Roles, Social Control, and Biases in Social-Perception Processes". They demonstrated that our actions and perceptions are determined by roles we have to play in interpersonal encounters; this is the biasing effect social roles have on performance.
In this instance the observers and the contestants perceived the questioners as having superior knowledge as the questioners were given latitude in how they frame the questions. Due to their social roles, the questioners were "the powerful" while the contestants and observers were "the powerless" playing out their roles and not taking into account the biasing effect.
If the roles were switched around, the outcome would still be the same with each group irrespective of their actual ability and knowledge.
