Human beings are complex organisms, being constructed of trillions of cells that come together to work like a well-oiled machine. In fact, the brain is made up of 86 billion neurons alone! Although, when you think about it, humans are actually quite simple! Humans have the ability to be subconsciously shaped by external factors, even if they don’t know it. We decided to put that theory to the test with a series of social experiments.
Our first test subject was Audrey Finn. We needed to pick a trigger word for Audrey that was random, but not too obvious. We landed on a humorous catchphrase “me-ouch” since Audrey loves cats and she would be receiving physical hints. After we said our trigger word, “me-ouch”, Audrey would receive a kick to the bottom of her leg while she was walking. After repeating this several times, Audrey started to fight back and trip us while saying the word; even though she still didn’t understand why we were doing this, she understood that “me-ouch” meant physical conflict. After repeating these tests even more, Audrey started to jump in fear after hearing the trigger word. Her brain began to connect “me-ouch” with pain. Once she finally realized what we were doing, we concluded our tricks. Despite the fact that Audrey knew what we were doing, we were curious if she would still fear the word; wondering if a kick would soon follow, or not. To find the answer to this, we reran the test a day later. As a result, Audrey ran away—in fear— as soon as she heard the trigger word.
After the experiment she said, “As soon as I heard the word, I knew to run away.” (See the video down below). Audrey’s experiment
Our next test subject was Rowan Richards. This time we took a different approach with his experiment; instead of using physical pressure, we would present him with candy after saying the trigger word, “lemon”. This test is very similar to one that was held previously by other scientists, where every time they would ring a bell, they would present a dog with food. After this action was repeated many times, the dog’s mouth would water every time it heard a ringing bell. With that being said, keep in mind humans are very different from dogs, and humans have the intellect to understand and solve complex issues. Nevertheless, let’s observe how Rowan responded.
At first, he seemed skeptical and thought we were crazy. He kept asking, “What does lemon mean?”. We ignored his questions and continued on casually. Throughout the span of three days, we continued to say the word and present him with candy. Finally, on the third day, we said the trigger word, but did not present him with candy. As a result, Rowan held out his hand, and waited to receive his expected piece of candy, along with saying “candy?” We asked Rowan what he thought when we said the word “lemon”, and he replied, “I think that I’m going to get some free candy.”
In conclusion, humans can be easily influenced through social interactions, repetition, observational learning, and linking old memories to new experiences to create responses. We found that when physical factors are involved, the subject catches on more quickly than the subject that is presented with a reward. The reason for this is most likely because fear enhances memory and learning; Audrey was in a stressful environment, while Rowan was in a calm environment. Either way, both subjects effectively learned by correlating events to their “trigger words”.
