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[skilletaudio]

The Bystander Effect (and ARGs maybe?)

[EMUGOD]

indeed, mob psychology is essential to ARGs. The problem is that it would require a substantial number of plants to actively control a situation. a workaround would be to create the situation you (the PM) want to create, and simply see how others react. then you go forward with the plot based on how the event turned out.

this approach would require much forethought and planning, but the alternative is probably out of reach for all but the truly massive scale ARGs... basically ILB...

[skilletaudio]

To have total control of a situation would be a massive undertaking for sure, but you may notice, in the case stated above, the primary shift in the behavior of the entire crowd was affected by a single shill, who was the first to react.
This leads me to believe that one could duplicate this experiment, with exactly one shill, who would respond, overtly, in the manner in which the PM's desire, and it would be reasonable to expect the crowd's actions would shift in that direction as well.

In effect, I'm suggesting the exact results of this experiment could be duplicated(not an unreasonable assumption), but as a tool of a scenario, instead of the scenario itself being a tool of the experiment. I'm not speaking in terms of the players, necessarily, who will be aware and seeking anomalies in behavior, and unlikely to react as normal bystanders would, but instead that in the right situation, the "scene" could effectively incorporate strangers into the play through a small effort.

[Ehsan]

http://mirlandano.livejournal.com/11075.html

[Phaedra]

[skilletaudio]

Yep, that is basically the whole concept. Theres a lot of pieces in the bystander puzzle. To speak in terms of emergency behavior, studies have found that there is definitely a cost analysis (Example: the presence of blood on a victim raises the health and emotional cost of intervening; a victim who was bleeding was helped much less than a bloodless victim), but also a salience of judgement: people look to each other for clues as to how to behave. If everyone is acting calm and composed while frantically trying to decide what to do internally, the net effect is that noone does anything, because they are recieving the silent cue that the proper action is to look calm and composed.

Not to attempt to blur the lines between emergencies and play, but I think you're right, insofar as you couldnt stage an ambiguous scene(for example, something highly dramatic) and convince a crowd that it was in good fun by a few social cues, but I think the experiment from the OP raises an intriguing idea, that a purely fun or at least harmless event could be made infectious by design, or at least with a higher chance of success.

I wonder what would work -faster- for getting strangers to engage in play, giving them an overt cue(like a wink) to decode, or manipulation by psychology, like in the confederate scenario.

[Red Queen]

Slant

[Giskard]

Re: Slant

[SirQuady]

Re: The Bystander Effect (and ARGs maybe?)

[ardiente]

[Giskard]

[GuyP]

But wait, why stop there? There's all kinds of fun psychological precepts we can apply to ARGs!

Social Loafing

[rose]

I am intrigued by these group dynamic ideas in general and the application in ARGs in particular.

One thing I don't get - there are only 3 crimes that I saw mentioned in the wikipedia article about diffusion of responsibility. To me, that means the failure of a group to report a crime or accident because each individual thinks someone else will do it, is an extremely rare occurrence. I would love to see a study showing how often- outside a lab testing situation- failure to act based on the assumption that someone else will do something, actually occurs. I can see students assuming that the test administrator was taking care of other subjects, but if they didn't know an authority figure was there, would they have acted otherwise? I've never seen people just mindlessly ignore someone who was hurt or fail to call the police when they witness an accident.

The Genovese case is rightly famous here in New York, and I guess throughout the world, but, as far as I can tell here, it was one of a few tragic, isolated incidents.

Also, to me, the key factor in the social loafing article, is that people loaf when they don't feel the task or the group is important. That seems to be more of a question of the motivation of the specific task to be done rather than the effect of groups per se. So, yes if you give a group of people a task they don't value, they won't work that hard at it.

I suppose I have a higher regard for group function; most of these concepts seem to be somewhat negative. (I'm not saying they aren't true, but I think there is much more to the story of group behaviour. ) Actually, the ability of a small number of people, or a person, to influence group behaviour simply by their actions, is something that I find inspiring. I guess that is almost the flip side of the bystander effect - within a group individuals may have more power and influence than they think they do.

[Mikeyj]

[konamouse]

1. Happy UF Birthday.

2. New kids, new rules. Set the rules. Rotate cleanup duty, set up a schedule or a wheel or an assignment list - whatever you think needs to be done so it is done on a regular basis - and EVERYONE participates. Demerits (or money in a party kitty jar) for those who fail on the job.