Authoritarian Sociopathy: Toward a Renegade Psychological Experiment, Part 6
by Davi Barker
Data Analysis
The statistical data specifically relevant to the experiment’s hypotheses will be the rate of intervention in the group which saw footage of a police assailant, the disparity with the rate of intervention in the group which saw footage of a civilian assailant (and the private security assailant if we include that variable), and any demographic information which shows a statistically significant difference within each group.
Further data on emotion and motivation gleaned from the exit survey will be used to identify potential causes, avenues for future research, and general discussion of the issue, but is not directly relevant to the hypotheses.
If the rate of people willing to intervene in an incident of unprovoked police brutality is startlingly low that will give us some indication of the severity of the problem of obedience in society, and lend weight to the argument that police militarization is made possible in part by the complacency of civilians. If the rate is surprisingly high it will invalidate this hypothesis, and indicate that other causes of militarization should be explored.
If the rate of intervention in the police assailant group is significantly lower than the rate in the civilian assailant group that will confirm that aggression from authority figures is more tolerated than aggression in general, indicating that authority itself may increase or even incentivize aggression. If no significant disparity between the rates is discovered that will invalidate this hypothesis, and also indicate that other causes of militarization should be explored.
If specific demographic information is found that correlates strongly with intervention that will indicate that obedience to authority is learned behavior, and not innately human nature. That should guide avenues for future discussion and research aimed at discovering both the root of the learned behavior, and the factors which contribute to learning the opposite behavior. If no correlation is discovered that will invalidate this hypothesis, and indicate either that obedience to authority is innate, or that weaknesses in the experimental design failed to screen for the causal factors.
The raw data from the experiment will be made public record online, and the video of subjects who allow us to publish their image will be made into a documentary which will be available online. We will also solicit interviews with experts in the field to provide commentary and analysis.
The Experiment Requires That You Contribute
If discovering the psychological cause of obedience to authority is the key to preventing the militarization of society, than research such as this is the key to avoiding the disastrous consequences of militarization. Further, if APA ethical guidelines prevent meaningful and influential research in this area, than we must be willing to fund research such as this privately, and to trumpet the results publicly so as to influence the culture directly.
This is not something that’s going to be completed in a weekend. Ensuring that it is both ethical and scientifically rigorous is going to require a lot of work from a committed team, which I’m currently in the process of assembling. This publication represents the progress made on my original pitch to conduct a renegade psychological experiment on police brutality, but I’ll fully submit to any design or idea that might better advance the grand strategic mission of safeguarding society from corrupt authority.
In my most ambitious fantasy I’d like to follow the model demonstrated by Morgan Spurlock who began with the documentary “Super Size Me” and leveraged its success into the similarly themed reality TV show “30 Days.” If the first experiment could produce a documentary that evolved into a series of a dozen, or a hundred different experiments on authoritarian sociopathy that could truly be a game changer in the way the public views authority. If done correctly, the right cluster of renegade psychological experiments, with the right publicity, could make people look authority in the face and see it for what it is.
To these ends, we’re conducting a crowd-funding campaign to finance this project. The campaign is subject to change as it evolves, but the current plan is broken into four broad production phases.
Phase One: The Campaign Trail
The book in your hand represents one strategy of this campaign. This phase involves presenting this idea to a broader audience, soliciting feedback to improve the design, team building, and fundraising for phase two of the project. During this phase donations will be used to cover travel expenses as members or our team pitch the idea at various events. They may also pay for graphic design, printing, expert consulting, or other strategies we devise to market and fundraise for this project, but primarily donations should be held in reserve to fund phase two.
Phase Two: The Dress Rehearsal ($10,000)
Before we can conduct the full experiment we have to produce the prerecorded surveillance footage of the assault. This involves hiring a professional production company, scouting out and renting the right location, and hiring professional stunt actors to choreograph a realistic and repeatable performance. This choreography must be executed identically, blow by blow, as well as convincing, in either costume. We also intend to film a dry run through of the whole experiment with actors, which will give us an opportunity to trouble shoot the design for unexpected complications. This will also involve purchasing and props and costuming we’ll need. Video of the dry run can then be made into a trailer and used as a fundraising tool for phase three.
Phase Three: Conducting The Experiment ($100,000)
Conducting the full experiment will be both the most expensive and labor intensive part of the project, but if all the prep work has been done properly by this point we should be in our stride. It will require renting the same location, and employing a full production crew for at least a month. To achieve statistically significant data with this design the experiment must be conducted with at least 100 subjects (150 subjects if we include the private security assailant variable). It will involve some modest compensation for all subjects, such as a $10 gift card. Once finished we will make the raw data available online for public commentary, which will hopefully inspire sufficient interest to fundraise for phase four.
Phase Four: Producing A Documentary
Ounce all the raw data is collected it will be time for analysis. We will present our findings in as public and credible a venue as possible. This will again require hiring a professional production company, and perhaps compensation for expert consultation and commentary. The end result could be anything from a well-produced You Tube video, to a feature length documentary complete with an extensive marketing budget. It will depend entirely on the available funds. Ideally this documentary will be available for free online to make sure that it reaches as broad an audience as possible.
Why Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is an alternative currency that can be transferred electronically anywhere in the world with no bank and no government forms. It’s cheaper than any other online payment system, and Bitcoin provides superior privacy protection, making it difficult to confiscate by governments or other thieves, but accessible from any WiFi connection or mobile device. We have decided to do the fundraising for this project using a designated Bitcoin wallet that we have created exclusively for this project. This will allow contributors to view the balance and transaction history of the project by viewing the blockchain, which is Bitcoin’s public ledger.
We recognize that the nature of our mission puts us in opposition to existing power structures, including government agencies and the legacy banking system. Bitcoin allows us to manage our finances without depending on traditional institutions. Using the dollar would implicitly contradict our own mission, because it would affirm the legitimacy of power we aim to undermine. Bitcoin also grants added privacy to people afraid to donate to controversial causes.
Bitcoin: 1VihBcmu5JMVz1irE1BR1eeKWdmBJt8KN
Bitcoin has seen a dramatic increase in value since its launch in 2009. Our strategy for fundraising is to hold donations in Bitcoin, and spend it only on project related expenses, that way our fundraising efforts benefit from any potential appreciation in the price of Bitcoin. Even if we don’t meet our fundraising goal immediately, any Bitcoin raised will stay in this publicly auditable wallet until its worth enough to fund the project. While we acknowledge this is an innovative strategy, we’re asking our donors to trust us to make those financial decisions.
If conducting this particular experiment becomes impossible, or another group decides to conduct this experiment independently, these donations will go toward other potential future studies on authoritarian sociopathy.
There are also plenty of ways to support this project without donating. As stated from the beginning, this publication is open source material, and this project is a work in progress. Everyone should feel free to copy and distribute it as they see fit. Any company or group should feel to conduct the experiment, or an experiment based on it if they wish. And every reader should feel free to contact me with questions, concerns, suggestions, or any other feedback that might help me improve the project. This is an idea whose time has come, and I won’t pretend to own it.
Conclusion
Fundamentally Agorism is the willingness to do what it takes to manifest a free society, even if it's illegal, as long as it's ethical. Most Agorists currently focus on commerce, and if you read The New Libertarian Manifesto by Samuel Edward Konkin III, which is the first explanation of Agorism, commerce is the first step toward creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges.
The advent of Bitcoin, anonymous online marketplaces like the Silk Road, and evens like PorcFest have all proven that commerce is possible without coercive institutions like licenses and regulations. The freedom movement is ready to do more than counter economics.
So, if the illegitimate ethical guidelines of legacy institutions hamstring meaningful research on authoritarian sociopathy, for the sake of safeguarding against the disastrous consequences of militarizing society, it is time for us to cast off such restrictions, and devise new guidelines consistent with our own ethics. If court professors will not spread their findings beyond their classrooms and peer reviewed journals, then it is time to conduct our own renegade psychological experiments. They need to be the subject of documentaries, and TV shows that become part of the mainstream culture, so we’re not just talking about 2 experiments that occurred in the 70s. We’re talking about dozens, even hundreds of experiments, repeated over and over and over again. We need everyone to be commenting on them, and discussing them, and writing papers and books about them.
We need to show the world beyond a shadow of a doubt, that power corrupts absolutely, and corrupt power deserves no obedience.
About the Author
Davi Barker is a writer, artist, merchant, and speaker but more importantly he is an advocate of peace, independence and liberation from the State. A street activist in both the Tea Party and Occupy Movement, Davi has rejected the W2 9-to-5 world in favor of full time Agorism. He is the editor of DailyAnarchist.com, the Campaign Navigator of BitcoinNotBombs.com, the proprietor of ShinyBadges.com, a marketing agent for SilverCircleMovie.com and the assistant director of Muslims4Liberty.org. If you are interested in supporting or collaborating on the first renegade psychological experiment you can contact the author at [email protected] and donate bitcoin to 1VihBcmu5JMVz1irE1BR1eeKWdmBJt8KN
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Great idea. I like seeing a well thought out plan.
For the fight, they could choreograph it and record it in a green room for rigging to 3D models, that way they can eliminate the cost of actors and takes, and the slight disparage in different takes, especially for three different costumes, which wouldn't go away, plus no need to find a location, just place the scene of the security camera as the background to the 3d animation, giving the animation plenty of grainy low resolution treatment.
That way the cost of filming for different ethnicity or gender, would be mitigated and used to research those variables.
Good CGI is not cheap, and the continuity between the hall and the video is key. But if you can make it work anyway, go for it!
On that line of thought, though, a low-res video feed and motion-capture stuntmen could allow costume changes in post-production with high-quality CGI. And if the main video capture camera were located properly, it could be used to match whatever background image the hall at any given location offered per your bluescreen/greenscreen suggestion. After all, if the camera at each location were 8 feet above the floor and 2 feet from the corner in every location used for the study, it might work.
If the hallway is built and the camera is pointed to a certain standard it would work. CGI isn't cheap but it's cheaper than Actors and sets. One recording of the fight scene is needed and that's only for inverse kinematics. 100 thousand for 100 people is a lot I think, and the more data sets the richer the detail we can glean.
The $100K is just an estimate, remember, and also covers renting a public space, construction, equipment, and other costs regardless of how the scene is staged. However, also remember that this is an open-source concept so it's wide open to anyone to reinterpret and run.