I think it's perfectly fine for companies to set up internal codes of practice - and the individuals in question must then factor that into their decision making. If you're a Professor and student then you know the score and you can make a decision appropriate to the situation in front of you. Who knows, it might be your soulmate. It might be the career ending decision nobody knew you wanted. Check the protocols and make the decision.

Adults can indeed be manipulated and there will be obvious exceptions based on extreme personalities. There are con-artists and psychopaths who walk among us - however, more often than not, these are the post-hoc descriptors people use to explain their inability to read warning signs. That's really what this is about. If you've been subjected to a genuinely horrific experience at the hands of a sociopath/psychopath then you're exempt. I'm not suggesting people who get bundled into dungeons are responsible for what happened to them, but I am saying that constantly rewriting history in your own favour is disingenuous and psychologically unhelpful in the long run.