What's in a name?

When I was at university, one of our linguistics lecturers told us a story... that goes something like this.

In the 1920s, insurance agents were called to deal with a number of explosions on an oil platform. When they visited the platform, they noticed an interesting pattern. Rules required barrels on the platform to be painted with labels depending on whether they were 'full' or 'empty'. Workers would then behave differently towards each. They would take great care of barrels that were 'full' - of cold, inert and extremely safe crude oil - not smoking around them, and transporting and stacking them carefully. Those that were 'empty' - empty of oil, but full of highly explosive gasses - they would smoke around and throw around the platform... until they exploded.