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The social experiment mentioned in the beginning (Spoiler)

posted 8 years ago by portionedfriend
7 replies | jump to latest

The movie starts with a voiceover of Ethan stating there had been an experiment in England where people were told hired strangers would be interfering in their lives, later recounting they were seriously affected by these strangers, but in fact

"nothing was done to them and the only thing altered was their perception".

Does anybody know if this experiment was actually done in real life?

It may be just made up by the writers, it's a clever opening considering the movie's ending, but ... just curious if it's based on an actual experiment.

[–] moodydoherty 8 years ago

Yes it's real.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment#Criticisms

[–] cyclgrrl 8 years ago

They spoke about two experiments. The one you referenced was with the baby and the rat - which is not the one mentioned in the beginning of the movie.

[–] shuxy_n 8 years ago

Wrong experiment.

[–] Darkramj 8 years ago

The thing that turned off my interest in that plotline was that they weren't effecting his behavior or his perception. They simply introduced stimuli and documented his reactions. It's not really a question if people will react to the world around them, nor is it a mystery that people will adjust to the changes in the world around them.

The project claimed to, but was not designed to discover something that isn't common knowledge.

To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. G.K. Chesterton

[–] letitiadionne 8 years ago

Exactly what I thought.

Sean and Ethan didn't do anything insightful regarding the human state, they didn't reveal anything groundbreaking about human behaviour.

All they did was attempt (and fail) to scare an old man.

I think Sean was quietly arrogant at the start of the film and the experiment he references at the start is likely how he chose to see his own 'experiment'. As he develops through the film he realises that he's just being a nasty prankster, but by that point is trapped (his cameras, his prints) and cannot back out.

[–] Robert_222 8 years ago

I think it might be a Derren Brown experiment. He always used to do stuff like that. I've seen all of his shows and tv specials but I'm not exactly sure which one it's from.

[–] Foxbarking 8 years ago

I'm a psychologist and I honestly do not believe this experiment was ever done the way it was mentioned in the movie. I've read about many, many experiments that show how perception is altered but have never read one exactly like that.

But the main reason I think it wasn't real is because when Sean talked about the Little Albert experiment later in the film, he gave us the name of the experiment right away. He didn't give the name of the experiment at the beginning of the movie, which leads me to believe it was just something made up for the movie.