Striking Visual: How FoxNews Creates Group Think

[tomm2thumbs]

An experiment* is recorded where an array of metronomes are all set off at different times, while sitting on a common hanging surface. In a matter of minutes, they all end up syncing together without any special means other than their mutual influence.

Watch as a continuous march of beats begins to create a shared consensus and then influences all of the metronomes to work in lock-step - down to the very last one. (Even the hold-out on the right eventually succumbs to the group influences.)

Have you ever wondered why FoxNews continues to pound out drum beats of misinformation over and over to the masses? Here you have a visual demonstration of why they do and how it can work. You can see just how the constant, steady pulse of repeated influences slowly reinforce itself, and spread over time. Quite scary when you think about it.

It is no small irony that by the end of the video, the metronomes end up looking like soldiers walking in lock-step with their rifles swinging back and forth.

_____




* this was an experiment done in Japan and the FoxNews parallels are my own

[Iwillnevergiveup]

1. Well, Tomm

Almost hypnotized myself. Your comparison to Fixed News is apropos - remember Bush saying, "We gotta keep repeating ourselves over and over...."

[tomm2thumbs]

6. (you are getting verrrrry sleepy... tick tock tick tock) hahahah

I think the repetition angle is true. Standing on the same talking points. And doing it en masse across the network.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Peer pressure.

Whichever set of like-timed metronomes had the largest number had the greatest influence over the hanging surface, and thus the entire group.

The Fox news comparison is apropos, but I also had a vision of what goes on at DU.

On a few matters, there is a majority that would like to banish those with whom they disagree. Given their numbers and enough time, they might get their way, much like the soldiers in that video.

That would be the day DU dies.

And of course it can be applied to any group.

Viva la difference!

K/R

[tomm2thumbs]

7. very good point - devils advocates are always good for discussions of all kinds

keeping an open mind is the one thing that is free that Democrats have instinctively in their nature over Republicans... sometimes we forget how important it is to have differing ideas and make valuable use of it to compare & hone ideas, build on strengths and examine flaws of arguments.

Something worth exercising regularly for sure.

[alfredo]

3. KNR

[leveymg]

4. Anyone want to explain the physics of this to me?

The psychological basis is a bit more intuitively obvious. But, this is weird ...

[tomm2thumbs]

5. not sure entirely but

I think that every swing of each metronome moves the tabletop slightly or has influence over it, which in turn affects the motion of each metronome in their next swing ever so slightly, until the feedback of all the metronomes eventually harmonizes all 32 into synchronicity.

I'm guessing when they started all of them at random, they accidentally created a majority similar moving swings in a pattern that slowly built on itself and affected others in the minority.

[leveymg]

8. Thnx for the post and explanation.

[NYC_SKP]

9. Put another way...

Picture a bunch of people standing on a suspended deck that can swing.

If everyone sways together, they'll rock the swing.

These metronomes are all set to the same frequency but were started at different moments.

Once in motion, some number of them were more in sync than the rest, so they imparted the greatest influence over the swing of the deck.

Over time, this influence transfers to the out-of-sync metronomes until they all cooperate.

LOL at the one on the far right that was toward the end completely out of sync with the rest!

Also at the end, you can see that the platform swing is most pronounced.

Very cool!

Reminded me of this:

[tomm2thumbs]

13. i LOVE that!

talk about hypnotic -- and thanks for the explanation in more understandable terms.

[progree]

28. Wow, they should make you the Secretary of Explaining Things (like what Obama called Bill Clinton

after Clinton's 2012 convention nominating speech)

[RKP5637]

15. Quite true, it is Newton at work, but put them on a rigid platform little would change in

a macro sense. Very interesting video, thanks for posting!!!

[stlsaxman]

14. if the metronomes were on "solid footing" they would not conform.

Last edited Sun Sep 15, 2013, 08:47 AM - Edit history (1)

that should tie the "psychological" to the "physics".

Yes- if they were on a solid plank that wouldn't share the sympathetic vibrations they'd maintain their individuality.

[RKP5637]

16. LOL! ... no "sympathetic vibrations" on DU in GD!

[Link Speed]

26. Exactly. But, to refer to the OP

there is no 'solid footing'.

Fox knows this, and adjusts the message to the shift.

This technique is as old as any religion. Take a disparate group with somewhat common footing, float a rhythm and wait for the group to gel.

That is how fanaticism works.

[stlsaxman]

29. yup- like Beatlemania...

" Take a disparate group (America after JFK assasination) with somewhat common footing, float a rhythm and wait for the group to gel."

[grantcart]

10. That's a laboratory example here is a clinical

[freshwest]

11. A friend made a similar video. Believes all things are expressions of frequency or vibrations.

Got to get to sleep. Ugh...

[BillyRibs]

12. I am Not A metronome!

End Of Line!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Hammers

[pam4water]

25. OHNOES

I know for a fact I look like a nail.

[marble falls]

18. And in as much time again they will be ticking the beat of different drummers.

[Corruption Inc]

19. It's not just FauxNews, it's all corporate news

It's pure propaganda aimed at the left or the right; no rational thinking allowed. Also, commercial TV is now 37% commercials so if a person watches TV for 2 hours that's 45 minutes of commercials.

[ellennelle]

20. knowing the physics of it

then the analogy to fox is not really so a propos, is it?

unless we want to say they're responding to some "force of nature," some "law of physics."

the analogy to fox breaks down because what directs this experiment is a law of physics, a force of nature.

with fox, it's an entirely UNnatural mind set - and a mighty rigid and inflexible one, at that - that intentionally feeds the minds that would consume its awful offal. from the bottom up, as it were.

the more a propos analogy to fox would be instead those waves that comedians sometimes create by directing the volume of applause. again, bottom up, because the directing force is no different than the elements that respond, yet that force takes it upon itself to direct to its own ends, manipulating the other elements to go along.

i'd actually like to think that it's the more progressive mind that the depicted experiment corresponds to, reflecting instead the natural phases and flows of evolving nature instead of trying to insist that one's rhythm can remain against the grain, no matter what happens, or who suffers.

i mean, in the midst of crisis or disaster, for example, the larger force of humanity (i.e., the phase propagated through the flexible field) is what directs action, not any individual or individual group's agenda.

fwiw.

neat video, tho; thx.

[Quantess]

21. People who talk politics love analogies.

Welcome to DU!

[Locrian]

23. I look at it

As being influenced by your surroundings an of course the system you're in.

Most people believe they alone determine their behavior - this is a good example of the influences of others and the systems etc.

[Voice for Peace]

22. that one little guy on the right side held out for a long time

you can see him getting tired and finally going with the crowd.

and the change in the ones in front.. they look like little
bobble talking heads, getting confused about what they
are supposed to be doing.

amazing!

[progree]

27. "that one little guy on the right side held out for a long time ... "

Yup, 2nd from the front on the far right. I noticed he was 180 degrees out of sync for a long while, while everyone else was in sync. I thought he was going to stay that way. Then he "got with the program".

[pam4water]

24. I thought they all might yell

"zig haile" at the end. Scary.