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How do we react in stressful situations? Can our actions be predicted?
This week's Action/Adventure Newsletter is all about Social Psychology, and some possibly surprising research that we can use in our day-to-day lives, and in our writing.
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I’m currently awaiting the start of the study year. I’ve got all my books ready, my university website already has some stuff on it, I’ve got my stationary (always fun to buy), so you’d think I’d be prepping, but no... I have also bought a book on the subject of my next degree, and I haven’t been able to stop myself from reading it.
The second undergraduate degree I hope to study after I complete my Master’s is on Social Psychology. I’ve done a free online course on it before, and I found it a fascinating subject. Straying slightly off-topic here, I can recommend taking free online courses – many are held by reputable universities and the content is of a high quality. You can take courses from MIT, for example. I’ve done a couple, one by Wesleyan University, the other by the University of Melbourne, from the comfort of my own home. Anyway, the Social Psychology course was great, and the knowledge I gained is handy in both day-to-day life and for use in my writing.
Do you think, for example, that you’re more or less likely to help someone if there are other people around who could help? If someone’s drowning, say, and you are amongst a group of people by the waterside, will you be the one to jump in? Or if it’s night-time, and you hear someone on the street screaming for help, and you look out of the window and see that most of your neighbours have their lights on, will you go outside, or at least call the police? Research shows that in such situations, something called the bystander effect is likely to occur. The more people who are present in a crisis, the less likely it is that any one of them will help the victim.
This is partly because we pick up social cues from those around us. If other people aren’t reacting to a situation, we may feel that we’ve misinterpreted the seriousness of that situation, or doubt the appropriateness of us stepping forward to help. There’s also a diffusion of responsibility – why should it be us who steps forward? Or, in the case of the scream at night-time, what if other people have already called the police? Maybe we’re bugging the busy emergency services if they’ve already had a report...
If you have a character, then, who ends up in such a situation, either as a bystander or as a victim, you can use this research in your writing. Will they be the one to step forward? Will they hesitate to do so because of the lack of action by others? Will their plight end up being ignored because everyone else thought others would do something?
A very interesting experiment was carried out by Stanley Milgram. It was inspired by the justification often used by the accused at the Nuremberg War Criminal trials that they were just following orders. During this experiment, participants were paired with another person who they thought was also a participant. They drew lots to see who would be the teacher, and who would be the learner. It was arranged that the real participant was always the teacher.
The learner, who was in reality one of Milgram’s confederates, was taken to a room, strapped to a chair and had electrodes attached to his body. In one version of the experiment, the confederate mentioned that he had a heart condition. The participant received a sample electric shock so that he would know what it felt like. The participant and the confederate were separated – they could communicate, but not see the other.
The participant was told by the experimenter (not Milgram) that he had to teach the learner a list of word pairings. For each wrong answer given, the participant had to give the learner an electric shock by pushing a button on an electric shock generator. Shocks increased by 15-volt increments with each wrong answer given.
In reality, there were no shocks, but the participants did not know this. Sounds were played of yells and protests, loud bangs, and eventually, the learner fell silent...
It was natural that there was some hesitation on the end of the participants to carry on the experiment. When this occurred, the experimenter would say things like, “Please continue.” “The experiment requires that you continue.” “It is absolutely essential that you continue.” “Whether the learner likes it or not, you must go on until he has learned all the word pairings, so please go on.”
In Milgram’s first round of experiments, 65 percent of participants administered the final 450-volt shock. All administered shocks of at least 300 volts. Later experiments gave similar results, and the same occurred during experiments carried out by other researchers, in other nations.
The experiments highlight how a person’s conscience can be overruled by the presence of someone they perceive as an authority figure. Even when people believe they are hurting others, if they hear the screams and then the dreadful silence, they find it difficult to disobey, and that goes some way towards explaining how ordinary, decent people can find themselves carrying out terrible deeds.
When I first learned of this experiment I couldn’t believe what I was seeing (footage exists) and reading. When the participants heard what they had to do, and especially when they heard that the other person had a heart condition, I couldn’t understand how they even pressed the button for the first mild shock. It made me feel sick to even think about it. With each increased shock I just sat there in disbelief. I felt that I wouldn’t have gone through with it. Never ever. I’m someone who feels terrible if I so much as accidentally bump into someone or step on their toes, so I can only imagine what it would be like to intentionally cause pain and harm. Just, no. It’s wrong.
I think we all feel that way, though. Or most of us, at least. Yet, these people in these studies did what they did. Can I truly claim to be different? That’s a worrying thought.
People do commit terrible actions, and especially so, perhaps, in extreme circumstances, such as war. It may help them to believe that others are responsible for their actions. That they are just following orders, just as in the experiment the experimenter was seen as the one responsible, not the person who actually pressed that button.
That is, of course, no defense. We are all responsible for our own actions, and for the consequences that follow from our actions. The participants could have refused to press that button even once. They could have walked right out of that building (after, perhaps, checking up on the learner). Unquestioning obedience isn’t a good thing.
How will your characters react to pressure to do things they know aren’t morally right? Will they have it in them to stand up to authority? Or will they give in? How will that affect them?
These are difficult questions, I think. But I also believe they’re worth contemplating.
Until next time,
NaNoKit
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Action/Adventure: September 19, 2018 Issue [#9132]
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