Syria.
By now, I have moved beyond shock to a vague sense of unease on the human
suffering at the hands of its own government. To jog our collective memories,
the Syrian civil war has now been active for over two years. This war has, till
now, cost almost 100,000 lives and over 1.5 million refugees. All this to
ensure that a minority Alawite Shia community can maintain its undemocratic grip
over the majority Sunni population within Syria.
More than the war itself, as a relatively unaffected consumer of this story, I was interested to explore a particular aspect of my own behavior. As the media depictions of the story became shriller and louder, somehow I seem to have progressively become more inert and apathetic to the suffering. It is almost as if I, as a thinking individual, continuously needed new geographies of suffering to jolt my conscience.
How does one explain this through principles of human psychology?
Here is one hypothesis - the idiot box (the television) has become my Skinner Box! I have been subjected to operant conditioning, where my shock (behavior), that was initially spontaneous, has been modified to inhibit its recurrence over repeated exposure to the media stories of Syrian suffering. Further it can be deduced that, out of the various contexts of operant conditioning (reinforcement, punishment and extinction), it is a case of Extinction i.e. the lack of any consequence following the behavior of shock led to it occurring less frequently and, ultimately, a potential extinction in that behavior.
Considering that we are talking about real human suffering, our (read my) continued empathy is crucial to get world leaders to act and resolve the situation. It follows that this operant conditioning would be detrimental to this action, to society, and humanity at large. So, how can one avert it?
We know that ‘variable’ reinforcements are more immune to extinction compared to fixed interval reinforcements. This is why we are so addicted to slot machines. In other words, variable exposure to the news keeps our brains in a 'curious' mode, not knowing when the previous bulletin was telecast or the next one might happen.
Given this insight into the human mind, to keep our empathy high, media houses should stop constantly bombarding us 24X7 with Syria news and share updates on a more intermittent basis. Alternatively, I should be deliberately tuning into news channels sporadically instead of 8 pm every night.
Given the two options, it is safe to assume that the later is more likely to happen!
To sum up the argument - in the face of the calamity porn being broadcast by news channels, human psychology demands that you be an irregular consumer of the news to continue being empathetic to human suffering. Possible, Mr. Couch Potato?
Footnote: For those curiously inclined, I composed this paper as an article for peer review in my introductory course in Psychology through Coursera.
More than the war itself, as a relatively unaffected consumer of this story, I was interested to explore a particular aspect of my own behavior. As the media depictions of the story became shriller and louder, somehow I seem to have progressively become more inert and apathetic to the suffering. It is almost as if I, as a thinking individual, continuously needed new geographies of suffering to jolt my conscience.
How does one explain this through principles of human psychology?
Here is one hypothesis - the idiot box (the television) has become my Skinner Box! I have been subjected to operant conditioning, where my shock (behavior), that was initially spontaneous, has been modified to inhibit its recurrence over repeated exposure to the media stories of Syrian suffering. Further it can be deduced that, out of the various contexts of operant conditioning (reinforcement, punishment and extinction), it is a case of Extinction i.e. the lack of any consequence following the behavior of shock led to it occurring less frequently and, ultimately, a potential extinction in that behavior.
Considering that we are talking about real human suffering, our (read my) continued empathy is crucial to get world leaders to act and resolve the situation. It follows that this operant conditioning would be detrimental to this action, to society, and humanity at large. So, how can one avert it?
We know that ‘variable’ reinforcements are more immune to extinction compared to fixed interval reinforcements. This is why we are so addicted to slot machines. In other words, variable exposure to the news keeps our brains in a 'curious' mode, not knowing when the previous bulletin was telecast or the next one might happen.
Given this insight into the human mind, to keep our empathy high, media houses should stop constantly bombarding us 24X7 with Syria news and share updates on a more intermittent basis. Alternatively, I should be deliberately tuning into news channels sporadically instead of 8 pm every night.
Given the two options, it is safe to assume that the later is more likely to happen!
To sum up the argument - in the face of the calamity porn being broadcast by news channels, human psychology demands that you be an irregular consumer of the news to continue being empathetic to human suffering. Possible, Mr. Couch Potato?
Footnote: For those curiously inclined, I composed this paper as an article for peer review in my introductory course in Psychology through Coursera.
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