>> ^MaxWilder:
I agree the piece would have been much more powerful (and somewhat more scientific) if it had been a hidden camera on an average Muslim in America. However, the video as is still is quite telling about the level of ignorance and intolerance here. I don't approve of this style of journalism in general (because it's lazy and inflammatory), but I would love to hear some justification as to why this particular video is harmful. As far as I can tell, it would only be harmful if it was completely staged with 100% actors and slanted against the reality of our society. It does not appear to be any of those things.


Hi Max,

Unfortunately I'm not sufficiently motivated to provide a detailed account of how I conclude that this sort of journalism is unhelpful and dangerous. But the short version of my argument is that people who are unfamiliar with social psychology could be wrongly persuaded by this video that this is an example of How Muslims Are Treated In The USA.

In fact, I think the grouping of 'muslim' and 'American' in this video is arbitrary and the same effect could be produced if all of these people were grouped in any way where there are similar antecedent conditions (e.g. salient normalcy between members). To my mind, a more parsimonious explanation of what we're really seeing at work here is random blend of social cognitive phenomena. For example, I think the participant's reactions could be reliability predicted as a function of personality which would have nothing to do with the in/out group distinction.

Here is a much more detailed account of what I am talking about: http://ourcomments.org/psych/GroupthinkII-realFinalADvances-1.pdf

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Penn State Media Sales"

Jeez... real pity, this is one of the more fascinating social psychology experiments.

^interesting use of statistical data and social psychology to keep quality videos coming. However, I feel that the new first-time posters will find it even more difficult to sift. Let's face it, no matter what we raise the vote escape threshold to, publicity and popularity of the submitter does weigh in on the equation. What if we had cutoffs. Say, at gold star, not only do you get more abilities, but the threshold his raised, then again at gold 100, bronze diamon, etc. so that you are held at a higher standard to compensate for publicity, popularity and increased active members.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'candid camera, elevator, group pressure' to 'candid camera, elevator, group pressure, social psychology' - edited by calvados

brilliant mixture of trickery, magicianship and social psychology

As a fan of social psychology, watching this man go through a gamut of emotions the moment he realizes he's being interviewed is one of the greatest things I've ever seen.