When is reality not real?
The problem with watching how people behave in "real" life is that once you tell them they're being watched they stop being real, says Laurie Taylor in his weekly column for the Magazine.
"What I really want," I told the vice chancellor, "is a laboratory of human behaviour. I want to be able to watch people as they engage in normal social interaction. I want to be able to make a sophisticated record of every aspect of that interaction. And I want to be invisible to my subjects. To see and not be seen."
"A bit like God, really," said the vice-chancellor.
 | FIND OUT MORE  Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesdays or 0030 on Mondays |
It was back in the late 60s when I first laid out that shopping list, a time when new universities were being sufficiently funded to allow even junior lecturers like myself to make quite outrageous demands for special research facilities.
I got everything I wanted: a social psychology laboratory which was described by one leading researcher as "Europe's most sophisticated facility for the observation and measurement of group behaviour."
Let me take you on a brief tour. As you enter from the departmental corridor you find yourself in what looks like a small theatre. But the neat rows of tip-up seats face not a stage or a screen but a one-way mirror which stretches cinemascopically across the entire width of the room.
Sheltered immediately below the mirror are a dozen small-work stations, each one fitted with sophisticated recording devices which allow the specialised observers to make a cumulative record of every piece of interaction occurring on the other side of the mirror.
Complete control
And then, as the watching students settle in their seats, and the specialist observers, click "Start" on their recording panels, the action begins.
|  Reality is a tricky phenomenon... [students] would go out of their way to confirm what they thought was the experimenter's hypothesis  |
Through the mirror we see a group of five students sitting together at a table. They are trying to resolve a problem "Could we do it this way?" says one student. "I can't see how that would help," says another.
Through the mirror in the observation room, the recorders are busily coding each of these remarks. "Could we do it this way?" counts as an "instrumental suggestion" and that means a click on the number six button on the recording pad. "I can't see how that would help" is rated as a "negative emotional response" and rates an eight.
And while all this goes on I would be standing at the back of the observation room feeling that I had at last managed to capture experimentally a small piece of reality. Unlike other social scientists, who studied such nebulous topics as social mobility and ethnic relations, I was in complete control of my subject matter.
There were obviously some slightly unnatural aspects involved in my study - after all people don't typically sit down to tackle problems at a table in a large empty room bounded on one side by a huge mirror - but once the subjects got started on the problem, there could surely be no doubting the reality of the ways they interacted.
Conforming to type
But reality is a tricky phenomenon. Some years later I came across a disturbing study which showed that the ways in which students behaved in social psychology laboratories was entirely different from the behaviour they'd exhibit in other settings. For a start, they would go out of their way to confirm what they thought was the experimenter's hypothesis.
 Is this how normal people would behave if unwatched by TV cameras? |
They'd agree and disagree in laboratory discussion groups because they'd decided in advance that this was what people on the other side of the one-way mirror wanted to see and hear. The conclusion was stark. What I'd been studying all these years was not reality at all. It was a very specialised form of reality - laboratory reality.
Outside the laboratory, the work of recording reality has become the specialised preserve of film and television documentary makers. Each of them, from Robert Flaherty in the 1930s to the contemporary producers of Big Brother, have used and misused the word "reality" to add status to their cultural products. No wonder that Brian Winston chose Claiming the Real as a title for his illuminating history of the documentary.
A couple of months ago I ran into a student who'd taken part in my interaction studies. He wondered how they'd worked out. Had I proved what I'd wanted to prove?
"Oh yes," I told him, "everything came out more or less as I predicted".
"That's great," he said. "None of us wanted to let you down." I nodded my thanks and said goodbye: it somehow didn't seem appropriate to point out that his eagerness to bring my study to a successful conclusion had undermined my belief in laboratory findings forever.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Trashy book amnesty
Trashy book amnesty
 Read one of Katie's novels? |
At 3.1m characters, some 560,000 words and 1,400 pages, it's tempting to lie about having read War and Peace. After all, what are the chances the target of your fib has ploughed through the Russian masterpiece themselves?
Why do so many of us lie about our literary conquests? It's down to a conquest of a different kind - psychologists say many people hope that pretending to have read heavyweight books will make them more sexually attractive.
According to a World Book Day survey, 1984, War and Peace and Ulysses are the favoured white lies.
| One would certainly not want to bring this up at dinner parties, but on my bedside table right now, there's Sleep With Me by Joanna Briscoe and Nicci French's Killing Me Softly John Sutherland |
If these are thought to have the power to impress, what about books we do read but are too embarrassing to own up to?
The impressively well-read John Sutherland (he's knocked off Tolstoy's greatest hit several times) is an author, academic and critic, but even he has a few skeletons in his literary closet.
"Wild horses wouldn't get me to say this in public, but I am rather partial to Jilly Cooper. I think it's partly that she has a gap in her front teeth like me, and it stares out from her books," he admits under interrogation.
Lying in bed is Sutherland's favourite place to indulge this passion - and Cooper is not his only guilty pleasure.
"One would certainly not want to bring this up at dinner parties, but if, for instance, you look at my bedside table right now, there's Robert Crace's Demolition Angel, Sleep With Me by Joanna Briscoe, The Long Rain by Peter Gadol and Nicci French's Killing Me Softly."
Pedigree airport novels, the lot.
"You're not going to write that are you? I'm an academic with a reputation to uphold, remember."
Sorry, but it wouldn't be much of a confessional if we didn't.
Private shame
Sutherland strongly believes the departure lounge is the place to discover people's inner literary secrets. They let down their guard, he says, just in case the book they choose may be their last.
As a frequent flyer, his comfort fiction of choice is the latest pulp crime novel, the creation of "publishing machine, not man".
He is in good company. Books no-one will praise in public have long flown mysteriously off the shelves to be enjoyed in private. Sutherland mentions Mickey Spillane, whose pulp novels were derided in the 1940s but incredibly popular.
"It's strange how embarrassed you get about what you're reading or enjoying. There's always this feeling that there's this school mistress over your shoulder grading you," says Sutherland.
"There's really only three private acts left and reading is one of them - what one does in private is very different to what one will own up to in public.
"Of course, I'm only speaking for myself here. All other academics, I'm quite sure, will only go to bed with Finnegan's Wake and Proust."
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Monday, April 20, 2009
Madonna's banned advert
Madonna's banned advert
| AD BREAKDOWN The Magazine's review of advertising |
THE ADVERT: Madonna, singing Like a Prayer for Pepsi in 1989
THE SCHTICK: The cola wars in full swing, Pepsi wheeled out its big gun - the Queen of Pop - to perform her latest single
 Madonna's "young self" in the advert |
THE BREAKDOWN: It was, the TV voiceover promised us, not to be missed. The Material Girl was to put the fizz into Pepsi's campaign - for a fee of $5m.
The premiere of Madonna's Like A Prayer in a two-minute advert was notable enough to be reported on ITN's News At Ten, and ITV ran trailers advertising when it would be shown - 8.12pm on Thursday 2 March, 1989.
But within 48 hours of the much-hyped worldwide premiere, the company pulled the ad, and it was never screened again.
This was because influential church groups in the United States had threatened a mass boycott of Pepsi products, troubled by the Catholic-born star's ongoing flirtation with religious imagery.
The ad starts with Madonna watching black-and-white footage supposedly of her own eighth birthday party.
| While our commercial bore no resemblance to the video, many people who were offended by the video made no distinction between the two Pepsi spokesman |
Then magically, the star and her younger self switch places. Mini-Madonna wanders around the singer's apartment, marvelling at posters of her adult self and finds the same doll she has been given as a birthday gift. The ad ends with grown-up Madonna telling her young self "go ahead, make a wish" - as they both drink Pepsi.
That slogan was intended to become as synonymous with Pepsi as "It's the real thing" is with rivals Coke. But the feelgood factor did not last long for its executives.
Within a couple of days came the second act in the drama. The video for Like A Prayer hit TV screens.
|  It was great for anyone religious - it shows Madonna witnessing an attack and then going to a church for guidance Leon, who played the black saint |
It opened with Madonna fleeing the scene of a rape. She runs into a church and prays before a statue of a saint, played by a black actor, before flashbacks reveal she witnessed the attack, carried out by a white man. But an innocent black man (the saint's double) is arrested.
There are burning crosses and Madonna suffers stigmata before heading off to put right this miscarriage of justice.
Within hours, American religious groups complained about the portrayal of Jesus Christ (as some viewers assumed the saintly character to be) as a black man being kissed by Madonna.
With MTV unlikely to ban the video, the groups tried a new tack - threaten to boycott Pepsi.
The campaign was promptly shelved. Twenty years on, a Pepsi spokesman says it was an unfortunate episode.
"While our commercial bore no resemblance to the video, many people who were offended by the video made no distinction between the two. We felt that the only appropriate step under the circumstances was to immediately stop the airing commercial."
Business decision
Ruth Mortimer, associate editor of Marketing Week, says that today there would be even more of a reaction.
Top Of The Pops only showed an editted version of Like a Prayer
"Religious groups know what they can achieve if they complain. Big companies in the States tend to be particularly sensitive in that area."
When it comes to celebrity advertising campaigns, companies buy into the star's image.
And when things go wrong for that person, it's time for a corporate rethink. Wrigley's chewing gum recently withdrew its adverts starring singer Chris Brown, who is facing assault charges.
Ms Mortimer believes Pepsi had little choice: "You have to weigh it up carefully, whether the complainants come from a group that are particularly likely to buy your brand.
"Pepsi is a very mainstream brand so it's quite difficult for them to do something edgy."
| LIKE A PRAYER Title track from Madonna's fourth album Single spent three weeks at number one in UK and US Her eighth best-selling UK single It won an MTV award and Madonna thanked Pepsi "for causing so much controversy" |
Since 1989, Pepsi has had more big-name celebrity endorsements (Britney, Beyonce and Beckham) while Madonna has fronted campaigns for companies as varied as Max Factor, BMW, Versace and Gap.
Clare Parmenter, of the Madonnalicious fansite, says Pepsi should have realised Madonna might be a controversial choice.
"She has become more famous for shocking people since then. It seemed like it was the start of her really pushing the boundaries."
 Leon remained friends with Madonna and once took her to a reggae club |
So what happened to the other central figure in the drama - the black actor who played the saint and the innocent man?
Leon (who, like Madonna, eschews his surname) went on to star in Cool Runnings, Disney's 1993 film about Jamaica's bobsleigh team.
He's also appeared in Sylvester Stallone's Cliffhanger and Ali with Will Smith, and in TV films about The Temptations, Jackie Wilson and Little Richard.
He recalls: "I didn't want to do a pop video. I saw myself as a serious actor and all I knew of Madonna was her dancing around. But I was persuaded to meet the director and hear the concept."
He did not see the storyline as controversial. "I actually thought it was great for anyone who is religious. It shows Madonna witnessing an attack and then going to a church for guidance.
"I really think that Pepsi made a hasty decision, but it was their own money they were throwing away."
Ad Breakdown is written by John Hand
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Friday, April 17, 2009
'My one night stand-up'
'My one night stand-up'
 Richard Pryor he ain't |
All four of us are sitting in a straight line in the front row. Sitting up very stiffly and very formally compared with the hundreds of other relaxed chattering people who are crammed into the auditorium of the Comedy Cafe.
We're all within touching distance of the bare stage which each of us is shortly about to occupy as part of Comic Relief's new wheeze for raising money - Stand-Up With The Stars.
When I first took the phone call from the producer it seemed a very simple business. "All you have to do," she told me, "is prepare a five-minute stand-up routine. You'll be with three other Radio 4 presenters and each of you will get a helping hand from a professional stand-up.
| FIND OUT MORE... Stand-Up With The Stars is on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 8 March at 1330 GMT Or download the free podcast |
"Your mentor will be Shappi Khorsandi. You know, the Iranian comedian. There'll be a try-out run before family and friends and then the final test in front of a real audience at the Comedy Caf
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Your handwriting samples
Your handwriting samples
In response to our piece on the death of handwriting, hundreds of you sent in examples of your own. Here are a few.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
What's the ideal number of friends?
What's the ideal number of friends?
| By Tom Geoghegan BBC News Magazine |
It's widely accepted that friendships are invaluable to the soul but few of us were aware that they could also boost the bank account.
A study of 10,000 US students over a period of 35 years suggests the wealthiest people are those that had the most friends at school. Each extra schoolfriend added 2% to the salary.
The researchers said this was because the workplace is a social setting and those with the best social skills prosper in management and teamwork.
| 'I HAVE 700 FRIENDS'  Toks Timson, from Croydon, has 707 Facebook friends 'I actually know or have met or worked with or went to school with or am related to at least 550. 'The others are just friends of friends or random adds from people. 'Having that number of friends is a lot of work for sure. I'm a bit of a raver and also someone who makes friends easily.' |
If a wide circle of friends is taken as a popularity indicator, does that mean the more you have the more successful and happy you are? Or can you have too many? What is the best number?
The average number is about 150, says leading anthropologist Robin Dunbar.
It may sound like a lot, but think of your Christmas card list - 50 cards to 50 couples = 100 friends.
"It's the number of people that you know as persons and you know how they fit into your social world and they know how you fit into theirs. They are a group of people to which you have an obligation of friendship."
They usually consist of an inner circle of five "core" people and an additional layer of 10, he says. That makes 15 people - some will probably be family members - who are your central group and then outside that, there's another 35 in the next circle and another 100 on the outside. And that's one person's social world.
| Aristotle said friends must have eaten salt together Philosopher Mark Vernon |
Friendships help us develop as people, says Mark Vernon, author of The Philosophy of Friendship, but the very term "friend" covers a whole range of relationships. You have a very close friendship with your partner but with others it may just be a common interest or history or simply children the same age.
"Aristotle said friends must have eaten salt together and what he meant is there's a sense that people have lived a significant part of their life together. They've sat down and shared meals and the ups and downs of life.
"You really have to have mulled over things with them to become really good friends and there's only so many people you can do that with.
"You can have friends because of what you do together or enjoy something together like football or shopping, but they're not as profound friends as those who you love for themselves because of something in their character. And it doesn't matter what you're doing with them, even sitting alone in a room."
'One in, one out'
There's a limit to how many close friends like this you can have and it's probably between six and 12, he says.
"I think this idea that you can have virtually limitless numbers of friends does water down the concept of friendship. I think it's one of those things where less is more."
Not if you're a socialite like designer Nicky Haslam, who recently threw a party for 800 friends. But even people who don't inhabit the heady world of fashion and celebrity have too many friends to manage.
A newspaper columnist once told of her shock when, having struck up a rapport with a man over dinner, she was told at the end of the meal he had no vacancies for friends. He was operating a "one-in, one-out" policy. Six months later she received a card stating he was now available for friendship.
That's an extreme example but many people view their friendships scientifically and regulate them accordingly.
| 'I STREAMLINE FRINGE FRIENDS' Penny, a 35-year-old mum of two in Brighton, says she has 12 good friends but of those would only really confide in four 'There's not enough hours in the day or days in the week to see everyone. 'Certain people ask if I'm around to meet and I don't really want to commit because I've got other people I want to see. 'So you do start streamlining, but your oldest friends are always there.' |
Julie, a 34-year-old PR consultant in London, says she has three categories of friends. Firstly there are nine close friends - the Premier League - whom she could ring any time of day or night and they would drop everything and come if necessary.
"I try to see them every few weeks and speak at least once a fortnight. I have a rota in my head and try and ring one of them each night as I drive home from work. It shows how pressured we are for time that speaking to friends is multi-tasking."
Julie's next social group has about 20 people, mostly men, whom she would see every couple of months, then there are more than 100 people beyond that on the outer fringes - friends from work, friends from her last job and friends from travelling.
"There are two people whom I don't really want to stay friends with but I don't have the heart to say no to. People I used to work with, they invite you to dinner and then you feel you have to invite them back, but you really don't have the time and it gets really stressful, especially since getting a boyfriend.
"I want to spend two nights a week with him, two nights to myself at home and two nights at the gym, so that leaves one night to see people."
There is a perception that as society has become more mobile, and traditional family bonds have loosened, friendships have become more fleeting. But on the other hand, modern technology has meant we can stay in touch with more people than ever.
"First email, then mobile, and now social networking sites like Facebook have made it much easier for people to grow their circle of friends beyond their immediate inner circle," says digital media expert Dan Clays of BLM Quantum.
"But the swelling is predominantly in the outer-reaches of their circle, and often the fringe group. If you were to examine the profile of someone's group of friends on Facebook, the probability is that a large contingent were accepted as friends out of curiosity and after an initial exchange, the level of dialogue slows down to a trickle."
This is especially apparent in the 16-24 audience group, the digital generation, he says, so it will be interesting to see if they are able to maintain that contact later in life.
But maybe we're too fixated on numbers, says Mr Vernon.
"Ask yourself about the quality of your friends, not about the quantity."
For the sake of friendship, some names have been changed
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