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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Since a lot of people asked... (Boy, I hope this isn't a letdown)

 

One part of the psychology exhibit I saw at the AZ Science Center at ASTC a
few years back was a sort of long, rectangular canopy you could walk under.
The floor was in a black and white checkerboard pattern, and you could see
there was something at the other end. The signage at the entrance read
something like "Go to the end, but ONLY STEP ON THE WHITE SQUARES". At the
end of this mini-hallway, there was more signage, which began (I'm probably
paraphrasing) ---

 

"Did you only step on the white squares? If so... WHY???"

 

The upshot was, you just did it because someone (or in this case, something)
in a position of authority told you to do so. I think it was to make the
point that as much as we all like to think of ourselves as independent, free
thinking individuals, often as not we just do what we're told even if we see
no clear reason for doing so. To back this point up, when exiting this
component, there was a video about the (in)famous experiment where
volunteers were told they be helping an experiment by administering electric
shocks to test subjects. (That part was fake.) The experiment found that
when told to do so, people kept "zapping" others with supposedly more + more
juice, even when the "zappees" begged them not to... just because they were
told to do so.

 

I came up with my own theory why people only step on the white squares (I
know I did!) I think it might be less about obeying instructions, and maybe
more about expectations. You're at a science center. You expect that if you
read the directions, then follow them, something keen and science-y happens.
Right? It made me think about how we hear about the importance of
objectivity and double blind stuff in experiments, and I suspect we'd all
like to think we can act unbiased when need be... but this exhibit showed
that maybe our expectations can make us do things.

 

Either way, it gave me the wig.

 

Jonah Cohen

Outreach & Public Programs Manager

Science Center of Connecticut

 

"On blind faith they place reliance,

what we need more of is science"

           -MC Hawking

 


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