The Obedience Experiment. A Fresh Look

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

There is such a cool, now textbook, psychological social experiment, which is often associated with the word obedience

Briefly what it is about. The experiment was put on both children and adults over the past 50 years and more than once - it doesn't really matter here. The one on whom the experiment is being performed is the only one who is not aware of the performance. There are several people in the room - a test subject and several players. The test subject is shown to some obvious thing / object / phenomenon or is given to taste something familiar to the taste, for example porridge, the same thing happens with the others, then in turn they are asked what it is or what it tastes like. Everyone answers to the subject and calls it the wrong word that is usually called: that is, white is called black, sour is called sweet, etc. And in most cases, the subject calls it the same word as the rest. That is, despite the sour taste, like the others, he calls the porridge sweet or white - black.

Following the thread of the classical interpretation, a huge air castle is built from this and global conclusions, stunning in their fantasticness and beauty, are constructed. And you probably know.

I suggest something else. To get acquainted with a different view of this experiment, everything is the same.

Now try to take your time and be careful.

Everyone, EVERYONE who sits in the room with whom the experiment is taking place, perceives exactly WHAT PERCEPTS. And the very fact of perception is undeniable. I will decipher.

Prior to the experiment, prior to the context of this room, the subject referred to white as white and black as black. So he was taught. To poke at something with your finger and extract these very sounds of the name - to call. The same sounds are produced by those around them poking at it with their finger, and everyone who nearby hears these sounds and understands each other well, understand what they are talking about. This is precisely the convenience of mutual agreement to call white white, and black - black: it is convenient to make the same sounds about external objects by calling them in a familiar and the same way. Moreover, it is mutually convenient. There is no need to find out every time, poking your finger at a wall or a vase, what we are talking about - there is a ready-made agreement, the convenience of which everyone happily uses.

But now, in this very room, a bunch of people have gathered and the majority in this bunch are starting to point their fingers at something (which is absolutely not important) and call it another word, not the one that was used to call it outside the current room.

Attention. There is a pause.

Now try to investigate freshly and carefully: "What's the difference with what word to call what is perceived by everyone, when everyone wonderfully understands what is being said?"

The subject is NOT AGAINST calling IT by any word - if everyone understands everything. If everyone understands WHAT THE SPEECH IS ABOUT. If in a new context, the context of several people and this room, it is more convenient for everyone to call it black - no question, you can use this particular combination of sounds. Who cares? - That's right, NO!

The simple essence of any words emitted by sounds is precisely in this - in mutual communication, in interaction. And if communication is established, it does not matter at all through what words / gestures / sounds / facial expressions or even silence.

Everyone understands each other, understands what they are talking about, which means that the communication is IMMEDIATED. And that's all. No obedience, no hysteria about dependence, repression, or influence; no complications, no cosmic ideas, no gigantic theories. Very, very simple, much easier than you might think.

But the essence of simplicity is precisely in this - it is not as bright, not as loud and not as magically enticing as the gloss of a colorful, defiant title, especially if the title is like a horror movie stuffed with bright frightening conclusions, if the conclusions sound confident, radical and even a tiny bit threatening.

Returning to the topic, I would like to add: even if we hum, poke a finger at something and at the same time understand each other - this is enough, because the essence of our interaction has already been achieved. This is how animals communicate, many mammals - making the very sounds that they know how to make and recognize. Animals are great at recognizing the context of mutual sounds / dances / gestures and understanding each other.

So let's not find fault with the form, from the simple, not to wind up the complex, not to turn back the tricky impenetrable coniferous forests from solid ideas and conclusions. When there is a simple understanding of what words are meant for - to express what is overflowing and to establish interaction - many questions / complaints / discontent instantly disappear from life, because now you can try exactly this: listen to each other, feel and establish sincere interaction.