Derren Brown: The Experiments S01E02 - The Gameshow

Title..............: Derren Brown: The Experiments
Aired On Channel...: Channel 4
Airing Date........: 28/10/2011
Source.............: PDTV
Resolution.........: 624 x 352
Aspect Ratio.......: WS 1.773
Framerate..........: 25 FPS
Video Codec........: XviD
Audio..............: MP3 @ 128kbps VBR 48KHz
Size...............: 550 MB
Link...............: http://www.tvrage.com/shows/id-29800

In The Gameshow, the second show in The Experiment series, Derren Brown turns himself into the host of a game show and investigates whether we all have the capacity for evil and whether or not being part of a group affects our sense of right and wrong.

Soucre: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/derren-brown-the-experiments/episode-...

DELVING DEEPER

THE MADNESS OF CROWDS

Gustave le Bon was one of the first scientists to study crowd psychology. In The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1896) he concluded that the behaviour of the crowd did not reflect the characters of the individuals within it. But his view of crowd psychology was largely negative. He thought them emotional, gullible, suggestible, capricious, unintelligent and consequently often destructive. It is a common view of crowd behaviour but one that is being increasingly contested as simplistic.

DEINDIVIDUATION

In trying to explain the behaviour of crowds, contemporary social psychologists refer to deindividuation. Members of crowds feel anonymous and anonymity leads to a decrease in responsibility and loss of inhibitions. The phenomenon of deindividuation has been used to explain all kinds of anti-social behaviour, from the lynchings carried out by hooded groups such as the Ku Klux Klan to the genocide and torture that take place during war. It might also explain how cults operate and why people are prone to extreme behaviour on the internet that is at odds with their offline personality.

THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT

In the 1960s social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a controversial experiment to determine how far people would go in obeying an authority figure. Subjects were asked by a researcher to give people electric shocks if they failed a word association task. Unknown to the subjects the shocks were not real. Nevertheless a large proportion of subjects, over 65%, followed orders and went on to administer potentially lethal shocks. The experiment showed the individuals capacity for evil given a framework in which the ultimate responsibility belonged to someone else.

ANONYMITY AND AGGRESSION

Philip Zimbardo took the Milgram experiment one stage further. In 1969 he set up an experiment in which female subjects were asked to monitor a task and give electric shocks to people who failed. This time, half of the subjects wore hoods and lab coats so that they could not be identified. The other half wore regular clothing. The hooded subjects issued electric shocks of twice the duration as the regularly dressed group. The conclusion is that anonymity leads to even greater deindividuation. Analysis of data in other situations where anonymity is found, whether the violent acts of masked paramilitaries or internet flaming and trolling by people using pseudonyms, has come to a similar conclusion.

TRICK OR TREAT

Masks have been used in other psychological experiments to measure the effects of anonymity. Observers recorded the behaviour of Halloween trick-or-treaters when they called at a home in hope of being rewarded with sweets. The experimenter invited the children in and asked them a few questions before leaving them alone and telling them to take a single piece of candy from a nearby bowl. The children wearing masks took more than one piece of candy far more often than the children who were not anonymous. (Diener, Fraser, Beaman, Kelem. 1976).

STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

Philip Zimbardo has conducted perhaps the most profound psychological experiment that asks why good people do bad things. It began in 1971 with the staged arrest of nine students who had signed up to a psychology experiment. They were to play the part of prisoners for two weeks in a mock jail set up in the basement of Stanfords Psychology department. Fifteen more students played the role of guards. The roles had been determined by nothing more than a flip of a coin.

The prisoners were led blindfolded to the basement. Getting into the game quickly the guards ordered the prisoners to strip to be deloused. It was the first of many humiliations. The prisoners were given muslin smocks to wear and called only by numbers rather than name. The guards wore uniforms, dark glasses and carried nightsticks. This combination of dehumanisation and deindividuation created a struggle for dominance among the guards and the prisoners. Tensions rose and the role play became real. Guards became genuinely cruel. The situation spiralled out of control and the experiment was called off after just five days. A flip of a coin had turned ordinary people into abusers.

Further Reading:

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind by Gustave le Bon
Pioneering work that dealt with crowd psychology in the light of the French Revolution and other mass movements and social changes such as suffrage.
Available online from Project Gutenberg (1896)

Opening Skinner's Box by Lauren Slater
An insightful review of some of the most important psychological experiments of the 20th century. It includes interviews with some of those who took part in Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments.
W. W. Norton & Company (2004)

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo
Zimbardo's most recent account of the Stanford Prison Experiment together with his reflections on how it relates to the events at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
Random House (2008)

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The fictional story of a group of boys stranded on an island who paint their faces and become a savage mob. Considered a classic it is often referred to by psychologists when discussing crowd behaviour.
Faber and Faber (1954)

Source: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/derren-brown/articles/derren-brown-on...