Can You Feel It?

[rionaleonhart]

I watched Derren Brown's The Heist yesterday, and it was excellent. For those who do not know the premise: Derren Brown offers a motivational seminar to a group of respectable businessmen and women. The seminar is a cover for manipulating them into robbing a security van. It is a fascinating study of what people can be persuaded to do, and of the little-known danger that the song 'Can You Feel It?' by the Jackson Five poses to society.

I think my favourite part was the shop assistants becoming increasingly frustrated by the endless parade of people in suits coming in and stealing sweets. Hee! (I can't believe people did that. Derren Brown says 'steal from this shop! :D' and people - people who clearly haven't been hypnotised, although they have been manipulated somewhat - actually do it? I would probably have assumed he was joking.)

The replication of the Milgram experiment was just disturbing. HUMAN BEINGS. WHY SO CREEPY?


Here is a Heist-related quote from Tricks of the Mind that I rather enjoyed:

Had the final armed robberies not worked - though I had no doubt they would - I had a very vague plan B and C up my sleeve to ensure that the show would come together in some form. But I didn't need to go down those routes. (Let's just say that I had a lot of dancers tucked around corners, waiting for a signal.)


It looks as if you can watch the entire awesome thing here! It is fifty minutes long, and it is so interesting, so please do watch it if you have a spare hour right now. If you enjoy it, you could consider buying Derren Brown's DVDs.

Alternatively, if you do not have the time to watch the entire thing, here is a two-minute cut-down, speeded-up version set to 'Yakety Sax'.

Comments

[dots.livejournal.com]

I have the same question about the Milgram experiment recreation (I recognized what it was going to be as soon as they showed the NEXT: with the guy screaming over the mic), but I found this so absurdly fascinating that I pardoned it.

I'm really surprised more people hadn't heard of the experiment. Is it only common Psych 101 discussion over here? Did they just never take Psych 101??? I DO NOT KNOW.

[rionaleonhart]

It really is so interesting!

I don't know what Psych 101 is, but a quick search tells me that it seems to be some sort of compulsory psychology course at American universities (is this correct?). As far as I can tell, in an American university, there's the main focus of the course (major?) and then quite a number of compulsory unrelated courses. At a British university, the major is all there is. I study English Language and Literature, so every one of my courses is related either to the English language or to literature; there's no maths, no psychology, et cetera. A British university student is educated in a much narrower range of subjects.

So now you know! (Typing that was actually a bit embarrassing. IT SOUNDS LIKE WE ARE SO UNEDUCATED.)

I'd heard of the Milgram experiment, but perhaps that was just because a friend of mine took Psychology at secondary school. I'd thought it was more commonly known than it apparently is.

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

"A British university student is educated in a much narrower range of subjects."

Which is as it should be! The Dutch system works that way as well, and I never got the point of the US system, which seems to me to be 'hahahaha you THOUGHT you were going to study this one thing you found fascinating, right? WRONG! You will have to learn a little about everything IN THE WORLD, especially the stuff you have absolutely no interest in :D'

Seriously, secondary school is for 'learn a little bit about everything!', not university.

[dots.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes sense, then. That's why I was puzzled! We have what are called General Education credits, most of which are largely disconnected from the major, so you've got it pretty much right on. The Milgram experiment is pretty much one of the most basic concepts in Psychology 101 (which is either your gen-ed psych credit, or an entry-level psych course before you get into the major). Most Gen-ed credits are done within the first two years while the last two are devoted to your major. Example, in my first year, I took some entry-level Communications courses, but I also took writing, math, psychology, and history, among other things. I could have gone without the math :( I didn't know that difference between universities, it's fascinating and explains why I was confused!

So yeah, I've been taught the ins and outs of the Milgram experiment, among others, though I can never recall their names. I'm really surprised only one of them knew it regardless, though. It's such a telling experiment and so interesting in terms of the human mind.

...Wow, look at me ramble, you can tell I almost switched my major to psych :D

[rionaleonhart]

Differences between countries are always interesting! The American university system confused me for a while. What also confused me was seeing Americans on my flist complaining about what seemed to me like excellent marks, before I realised that the percentages meant different things in the US (here in the UK, over seventy per cent is a First, the best degree you can get; getting over eighty per cent in a subjective subject means that you are a gigantic freaking genius. I get the impression that the grade boundaries in the US are rather different).

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, here the usual way of doing is to have sixty-five to seventy percent be just barely passing (D to C in letter grades), seventy to eighty be adequate but not that great (C to B), eighty to ninety be good (B to A) and anything over ninety percent be very good (sometimes, depending on how extra-credit is scored, people can get over a hundred percent, which looks slightly nonsensical at first). Of course, different schools tinker with that to some extent, there's the pluses and minuses, and some schools (or some classes within a school) use the bell curve to grade people which complicates things and isn't very popular with students I've met.

I was really freaked out when I studied in France for a semester and a lot of my scores were in the fifty or sixty percent range. I was convinced I was failing so badly. Fortunately my school in the US knew how to convert grades from Europe, and I ended up with a lot of Bs and a few As (apparently, getting eight out of ten on any test rather blows teachers in France out of the water).

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

I still don't understand using letters for grades. How am I supposed to figure out my average grade if I get an A? You can't add A + B and divide by two. And the letters equate to numbers any way, so why bother with the letters? And then Scottish universities use LETTERS AND NUMBERS. A5? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?