What kind of mindset would lead to this behavior?? Maybe it doesn't matter. It feels -to me- like simply being exposed to people who say things like: "What?-- no, that's not good" while remaining professional, respectful, and humorous, is a vaccine against not wanting to seem jerky, yet staying secure.

Perhaps it did not come out as I hoped, if it was offensive I appolgize

The premise that integrity of most people is bribed by few bars of candy was offensive to me I hope it is to you as well. The sensationalist headline basically claimed that, the abstract was a very different statement.

I am tired of studies that are constantly being cited these days: readers, journalists and even the principals invariably sensationalize the headlines.

It is a losing battle to get anyone to critically analyse information presented to them, sooner or later you are going to snap. Whether it is alternate medicine, creationism, or conspiracy theories there is a real damage out there everyday , few people ( Jon Stewart? ) are articulate despite being frustrated and are able to civil engage in discussion.

Even if the study actually claimed what the headline said, the bar to peer reviewed respected research in much of psychology and social sciences seems so low that just getting some correlation between two parameters is good enough. Raw data is rarely shared, and statistical methods used are superficially understood and discussed, half the analysis's are just putting data into a tool like SPSS with the whatever defaults IBM puts in these days. There is not much scope for replication of a finding, a core principle of the scientific method.

To take your question literally: a trusting mindset. Many people default to assuming that people they meet mean them no harm