"Social experiments"

[Prowler]

So, in the last few years, Youtube has been full of "Social experiment" kinds of videos. Basically, they're scenarios whereby a couple of more people play a role in public in order to see how others will react. Often they involve scenarios such as one person being openly racist or homophobic to another and seeing if anyone will stand up to the bully and stand up for the victim. Then, before things get out of hand, the actors give away the game and tell the passer-by "it's a video!"

It's not that new of a concept tbh. It's basically a more elaborate version of pranks. Remember when prank videos were the hottest thing around in YouTube. Social experiments are probably based on shows like the ABC show What Would You Do?

What do you think of those kind of videos? I can understand the curiosity, but most of the time they're made by people who are 18-22 years old just trying to get some views on youtube. It's not like they're "legitimate" psychology experiments to help a study. Basically they just show us that some people like to get more involved than others. And some people just end up looking bad in those videos. I doubt such "Social experiments" change the minds of anyone.

Thoughts?

[Sumac]

It has as much meaning as teenagers eating Tide capsules.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Sumac

It has as much meaning as teenagers eating Tide capsules.

I can't really argue with that.

[IndigoErth]

Eh, neutral. I've only ever watched that sort of thing from an actual show, often as videos on there, not dumb kids on YouTube who do it as a prank, but either way... I guess I'm neutral at best. I suppose there is little harm in seeing how the general public reacts to situations, though on the other hand, it isn't exactly going to help to solve any problems in society, so what's the point.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Eh, neutral. I've only ever watched that sort of thing from an actual show, often as videos on there, not dumb kids on YouTube who do it as a prank, but either way... I guess I'm neutral at best. I suppose there is little harm in seeing how the general public reacts to situations, though on the other hand, it isn't exactly going to help to solve any problems in society, so what's the point.

Plus, what if someday an older person with heart problems collapses from a heart attack because they're too nervous witnessing what they think might be a real fight?

So yeah, I don't think it's cool to make people around you uncomfortable and anxious like that. It's not nice to play with people's emotions like that.

[Andrew NDB]

Some are amusing. Some made artificially ("gotcha!" type stuff) and from an enlightened place.

[Zulithe]

I see "social experiment" in any video or social media post, my mind immediately thinks "exploitation" -- either for money, fame, clout, views, exposure, whatever. You have some famous social media stars who can turn it around into an overall positive thing -- like Mr. Beast -- but for the most it's not a form of charity, it's a form of exploitation.

[FrederikWolferson]

It's fake and ghey.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by FrederikWolferson

It's fake and ghey.

Best summation.

[Coola Yagami]

I remember the one showing off the typical 'no one gives a **** about men' stereotype.

There was a female bitching out and even slapping her guy around, both actors, everyone just watched or laughed to themselves and had the typical 'guy probably deserved it' mindset.

The next day, the same couple of actors switched roles, with the man bitching out and slapping the woman around. White Knights dashed in so fast for M'Lady's honor, I coulda sworn they materialized outta nowhere. The male actor was lucky he didn't get a beatdown before they revealed it was a social experiment.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

The only social experiment I'm interested in would be to Pavlov my boss for a vacation....

[IMJ]

These "experiments" usually have two camps watching them. The first are people who likely never studied anything from real experiments and accept them as "evidence". The second are anyone who has studied real social psychology and accept these Youtube examples as pop culture goofiness (negatively) or pop-culture curiosities (positively). There are plenty of great and valid social experiments out there, like Milgram's Obedience To Authority study for example.

I'm only saying this because the Youtube stuff is exactly the kind of content that many "people of the Technodrome" would watch and then consider themselves educated on something. The point is that there are a lot of factors that dictate the results of any given "Youtube social experiment" that an uninformed viewer might attribute to "behavior XYZ", which isn't always an accurate determination.