I've really enjoyed these episodes so far, but as a behavioral neuroscience major, I am very upset with how they ran this episode. Throughout this episode, the experimentalists set the humans up for failure.
In the match-making segment, they line the "matchees" up with the three guys, a space, then the three girls. There were implications that there were three straight couples to be made, despite it never being explicitly stated. Having the "matchees" mixed up by gender or other control measures could have easily reduced this bias and increased the likelihood that people would assign same sex couples.
Later, they had a "reaction game" where they were testing racial bias. They had the humans "shoot" gunmen, quickly choosing whether someone held a gun or a cellphone and whether or not to shoot. The real test was whether they would shoot the white or black man while both popped up with cellphones at the same time. This experiment, however, involved a lack of control, having one man in a hat and one without one. The dark hat will automatically shade the eyes and make instinct less likely to trust that person.
Overall, I've been enjoying watching this show and there are a lot of great experiments and points made, but the claims made in this episode were premature and overall, upsetting.
In the match-making segment, they line the "matchees" up with the three guys, a space, then the three girls. There were implications that there were three straight couples to be made, despite it never being explicitly stated. Having the "matchees" mixed up by gender or other control measures could have easily reduced this bias and increased the likelihood that people would assign same sex couples.
Later, they had a "reaction game" where they were testing racial bias. They had the humans "shoot" gunmen, quickly choosing whether someone held a gun or a cellphone and whether or not to shoot. The real test was whether they would shoot the white or black man while both popped up with cellphones at the same time. This experiment, however, involved a lack of control, having one man in a hat and one without one. The dark hat will automatically shade the eyes and make instinct less likely to trust that person.
Overall, I've been enjoying watching this show and there are a lot of great experiments and points made, but the claims made in this episode were premature and overall, upsetting.