Week 17: Experimentation!

Last week I decided to perform a little social experiment by applying the Golden Rule to my week. I have to admit, I'm quite exhausted. I've made a few too many commitments and I've found it difficult to keep up with everything. No one really took advantage of me per say, but there were a few favors that I would of generally turned down that I found myself doing. On the positive side, everyone else was repaying kindness with kindness, and I found the few favors to be worth it.

So this week we spent the majority looking a group of social experiments that dealt with human reaction in a certain scenario. We kicked off this week with a series of games that exposed the ideas of cooperation and taking advantage of the situation. In most cases, the player was forced to make a decision that would either benefit only themselves, the other player, both, or neither. Most of the games result in my teammate and myself finding the best possible way to win the game at the expense at the other player. However, in the game of chicken, we realized that we could only benefit the other player. That being the case, we both took huge hits at the expense of our own scores to make sure the other player didn't succeed.

We concluded the week with an introduction to sociological experiments that dealt with the moral convictions of a participant in a given situation. I found it interesting that participants acted in the exact opposite way of what we would deem socially acceptable or how most of us would like to think we'd act. For example, the Asche Experiment placed one participant ina room with a group of actors. When they were given a question with an obvious correct answer, all the actors purposely answered incorrectly. The participants, for fear of ridicule, went with the majority and chose the incorrect answer. We'd all like to think that we'd be that acception and be that lone rebel, but in all honesty, few of us would. Even when we are unfamiliar with others around us, the desire to blend in is still apparent and some of us would even convince ourselves that the group was giving the correct answers in order to justify going against our morals.

The Milgram Experiment gave far more surprising results than I would have expected. Like Asche, this experiment has one participant and everyone else is an actor. The participant is in a room with an experimenter and is instructed to give another "participant" in the next room an electrostatic shock every time they answer a question incorrectly. The person being shocked can clearly be heard screaming in agony from the next room over, but the pressure from the experimenter caused the participants to continue shocking the "student". Again, I'd like to hope I'd walk away from the experiment, but the idea of an authoritavie figure in the room puts me under the impression that I'd submit, something most of us do around a person of higher authority.

We'd all like to be that rebel that follows their morals instead of the group or the authoritative figure, but more often than not, we conform. I'd like to know why. This week ?I'd like to read up on why we feel the need to conform when placed in these tough situations. Is it because our sense of judgement is blocked? Is it because of how society raised us? I'm interested in reading up on subjects of the various experiements and hearing what their explanation for their actions was.

Sources:
Asch Experiment. Photograph. Experiment Resources. Web. .

Milgram Experiment. Photograph. Wikimedia. Web. .

week 15/16: The Golden Rule

So this past week, we eased our way back into the routine by finishing up watching everyone's documentaries that we all spent so much time on, and I must say, I was very impressed with how everyone's turned out. It was obvious that every group spent a large sum of time and effort on each of their projects, and the results were outstanding. I was very surprised that most groups took an ethical approach at their films, even though it is the harder route to take. Because of this, most of the documentaries made a very strong point in what they had set out to talk about. The one or two groups that chose the unethical approach seemed to weaken their message through less-than-honest approaches, but still provided excellent documentaries nonetheless.

This week we focused mainly on the Golden Rule and how it fits into society today. The Golden Rule is something that we all grew up with, "Treat others as you would like to be treated." On paper it seems pretty simple and like a good idea that everyone should abide by, but when we delve deeper into an in-depth analysis, the rule becomes more complicated than it seems. Sure, treat others as I want to be treated, easy enough. But what if I don't want to be treated well or don't care how others treat me, then do I have the right to treat others poorly? Certainly not, but because the Golden Rule doesn't specifically state that, one could argue that it implies that very idea.

Another flaw with the rule is the lack of instruction for someone being taken advantage of. If I were to lend someone money and they requested more without paying me back the original amount, should I be expected to give it to them? Sure, if I were in that situation, that's what I would want someone to do for me, but I'd also never want it to stop. I'd keep requesting money because if they abide by the golden rule, they would continue to give it to me.

These are two of the many examples of flaws within the Golden Rule. Does that mean we shouldn't follow it? No, to an extent. Like anything else, there's certain situations where it would apply and certain areas when we just need to decide it's null and void. Anything that we take the time to over-analyze is going to show flaws, but the basic idea is still a good one, because if we try to live the way the rule intends us to live, then society is a better place.

Is there anything that could take the place of the Golden Rule? There are a few other rules on ethical codes that we discussed, including the silver rule, which is very similar to the Golden Rule. "Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you." The main difference between this and the Golden Rule is that it does not imply to be obediant in every situation. It still acounts for an idea of non-violence toward your neighbors, but is also takes into account the idea that one should not let themselves be taken advantage of. It still however, contains flaws, some of which were also seen within the Golden Rule.

This week we also looked at what it really means for something to be considered ethical. We looked at the idea of the "Greatest Good", which means, when we are given one option (the "take it or leave it" scenerio), the decision we make that results in the greatest good is the most ethical decsion. What defines greatest good though? If I benifit from cheating on a test as opposed to no one benifitting, is that still the most ethical approach? In theory, if we take the concept 100% literally, then maybe. But, most people would tell you that in the long run, cheating is, though not directly, still detrimental to my peers because school acts like a community.

Essentially, it's important to remember that things like exploitation and cheating for means of personal gain is not the ethical way of doing things. Machiavelli might tell you that it is the most effective, which I can't argue with, but it isn't worth it to cause the downfall of others to benifit yourself and a few others.

This week I'd like to pay a little more attention to see if I'm faced with a decsion that could result in the greatest good and see if I choose that option. I'd like to also apply the Golden Rule as much as possible over the course of the next week to see what the outcome will be. Will people take advantage of me or treat me well as a repayment?

Sources:

Golden Rule. Photograph. MBD2. Web. <http://www.mbd2.com/forum/balloon_Animal_Blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/goldenrule.jpg>.

Greatest Good. Photograph. KCTS9. Web.

<http://kcts9.org/files/program_previews/greatestGood.jpg>.

Week 13/14: Preparing for break

So last week I wanted to look at what really sells a product and what advertisers do to sell their goods without the consumers even noticing. To find out more about this subliminal advertising, the class analyzed two stores selling similar products, and we looked in depth at store layout, lighting, music, and a lot of other aspects of the store that the consumer wouldn't typically notice or pay attention to. What we found was that every little detail, whether we notice it or not, helps or hurts the producer greatly. A store with more walking room and better lighting will make someone feel more inclined to shop there instead of a darker, smaller store that sells the same thing.

It is amazing to see how much effort an advertiser will put into something that generally goes unnoticed unless we watch out for it. These techniques move to persuade the consumer in a certain direction, but most of the time, we aren't even aware of the manipulation that takes place during a commercial or just walking through a store. These techniques are generally very effective, whether they use humor like Jim Gaffigan's Sierra Mist commercials, or try to captivate the audience with a sense of elegance, like most car commercials. They still get stuck in your head regardless.

Ok, so lately our groups have been working diligently on our documentaries. It was deffinately a lot more work than we originally expected. The hardest part throughout the making of the film, was finding the right level of sensitivity to use in the documentary. We struggled with finding a good balance because on the one hand, we didn't want to offend parents by portraying their children without any censorship or any kind of filter. On the other hand, we didn't want to be so over-the-top with sympathizing a group of people that we really had no reson to feel sorry for. We had to make sure we weren't dehumanizing anyone. With that came the need for permission, which was also difficult to obtain. I had to type up letters to distribute to all the parents of students within the MOID program, which also took a bit longer than expected to receive a response.

Lastly, we had to find time. With exam week approaching much faster than we would have liked it, our deadline was much sooner than we had prepared for it to be. we were also limited on filming days because we had to work around what was convenient for Mr. Early and Mrs. Spurr. We couldn't just show up to their classroom one day and ask to do some filming. The editing job was very last-minute, and I've always hated editing because it's truely only a one man job.

Other than a few obstacles, setbacks, and large levels of stress that we experienced, I do feel like this was a great experience and I really did enjoy getting to make this film. I learned a lot more than I had expected, about documentaries and the MOID program, and I think my other group members did too.

This week I'd like to look at how others conducted their documentaries and compare our ethical approach to other groups' unethical approaches. What techniques did they use? How did their message delivery and and the viewers reaction to it differ from ours?

Sources:

Beard combover. Photograph. Price Scope. Web. .

Sierra Mist- Beard Combover. Perf. Jim Gaffigan. Youtube. Web. .