I have always been fascinated by the mind. When I was at college, one of the subjects I studied was Psychology, not for any psychiatric application but out of sheer curiosity. I wanted to know what made people tick, how their behaviours changed depending on their circumstances, and even how they could be influenced by the power of suggestion. I occasionally conducted a series of experiments on fellow students – some of which they were aware of, signing a consent form etc, and others were merely the unwitting participants in this student's twisted game... (Not really, it was more a covert observational study of social dynamics between groups).
Of course, as one of my other subjects was Philosophy, it lead to many a sleepless night trying to determine whether I were a free and autonomous individual or just a part of some hive mind consciousness perceiving itself subjectively. I have still to reach a conclusion on that one.
Anyway, last week, Derren Brown returned to our screens in his newest series of televised mentalism The Experiments. The first instalment of these experiments showed the process by which an unknowing participant can be conditioned into becoming a highly skilled, albeit unaware, assassin. Brown's ability to programme his unsuspecting volunteer to shoot and kill Stephen Fry was startlingly simple, remotely worrying, even, seeing as the subject had absolutely no idea he had been conditioned, let alone that he even committed the act. Fry's assassination was wonderfully set up, taking place at one of his live shows from about this time last year, and rigged to perfectly replicate an actual assassination. The participant was completely unaware he was about to 'assassinate' Fry, and the audience were not informed of what was about to transpire. This being so, I am concerned that the reactions garnered from Fry's 'assassination' ranged from a widened eye to a gasp... No one thought to run to Fry's aid, or see if they could accost his assailant?! Heartless monsters.
The point of this experiement was to prove that it is hypothetically possible to programme an innocent person into becoming an assassin. This brings a little bit of credence to the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Robert Kennedy and his assassin, Sirhan Sirhan... Is it possible Sirhan had been hypnotised into shooting Kennedy?
This week, Brown's second experiment looked into deindividuation, a kind of mob mentality that occurs when an individual becomes part of a faceless crowd. Under the guise of a gameshow in which the audience gets to decide the fate of one victim, Chris, Brown's experiment demonstrated how easy it was to fall into the trap of deindividuation. The principle of the show was simple; throughout the evening, the audience was given the ability to choose one of two options that would affect their unknowing victim's night. One option had a positive outcome, and it's alternative much less so. The choices became more pronounced as the show continued, starting with the simple choice of either having someone flirt with Chris or have him be accused of pinching a girl's arse and having to face her angry boyfriend, to being crowned 5000th customer at a shop or accused (and arrested for) shop-lifting. However, with each choice the majority of the audience continued to vote for the more negative and malicious options...
The audience began to become more mob-like as the show proceeded, finding all of Chris's misfortunes hysterically funny. Having had Chris falsely accused and arrested for shop-lifting, one of his colleagues call to tell him he was going to be fired, and electing to have him kidnapped and taken to an abandoned warehouse rather than receive a cash prize and bring an end to his living nightmare, the audience still felt the need to inflict misery and began to jeer for the producer in Chris's apartment to smash the television (which then, much to the audience's amusement, happened). I felt disheartened to see such wanton destruction at the behest of the audience's whim, as they took pleasure in this man's misfortunes which they had essentially scripted, but then something happened...
In the final sequence, Chris attempts to flee from his kidnappers, all the while the audience cheering and laughing, when suddenly he is hit by a car (although he's not really, it's a stuntman in a pre-filmed piece, but the audience don't know that), and a stillness descends upon the entire audience. They sit there, stunned and silent, no longer laughing as they had been mere moments before when their poor victim was trying to escape his assailants. It was as if they'd been slapped and had a glass of ice cold water thrown in their faces simultaneously. A wave of collective concern and shame, like a wake-up call after what had been – to them, at least – harmless fun. When debriefed, and informed that they had been a part of an experiment, there was not a single face that didn't seem to be in a state of shock, not just because of what they'd seen, but due to the realisation of how quickly they descended into that mob mentality. I just hope that they, and Chris, had access to a full debrief after the recording in case of lasting trauma (as research ethics dictates)!
The Gameshow indicated how easy it was to experience deindividuation. The mix of anonymity and crowd mentality can induce particularly unpleasant behaviour – it's this very effect that influences people to become internet trolls or gang members. It's also a behaviour that was exhibited in the Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971 conducted by Philip Zimbardo, in which a selection of normal pedestrians were randomly allocated the roles of prisoners and wardens, and left to their own devices for an extended period in a prison-like environment. The experiment was cut short when, given their position of superiority and power, the wardens severely abused the prisoners, even though a week previously there had been no difference between these people.
It's these kind of elements of psychology that intrigue me. For all it's complexities, the human mind is remarkably simple too, making us do things we would not otherwise do simply because we become part of a crowd. I personally do not believe I would be capable of the cruelty exhibited by the audience in the Gameshow, I would certainly not like to think I was, but there's a part of me that wonders; “would these people have felt this way beforehand too? How many of them, if they had been viewing it from the outside as I had, would not believe they'd be capable of such behaviour?”
Derren Brown's mastery and understanding of the mind is staggering, and I have always found myself in awe and envy of his magnificent displays of mentalism. With two further experiments, one on convincing someone to admit to a crime they didn't commit and the other on the secret of luck, Brown's latest series delves deep into the nature of the human mind. And I, for one, love it!
All of Derren Brown's Experiments can be found on 4OD here.
There's also a section on the Channel 4 website that provides a brief synopsis of other experiments and facts that are pertinent to Derren Brown's Gameshow, including a study of obedience by Stanley Milgram which is worded far more concisely than I could manage! It's definitely worth a read: Delving Deeper – The Gameshow.
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