Facial Expressions Experiment Ends In Decapitation

On By ehewitt24In Experiment

The Researcher and His Study

In 1924, Minnesota University graduate student, Carney Landis decided to conduct a study to figure out if all subjects react in the same way to different emotions like joy, fear, disgust, etc.  The easiest way to study this would be by observing the movement of facial muscles when emotions arise. Thus, the purpose of Landis’ study was to find repetitive patterns in facial expressions.

The Experiment

Landis photographed his subjects (as seen above) when they reacted to various stimuli

For his experiment, Landis recruited some of his fellow graduate students that were willing to volunteer to participate as his subjects.  Once they entered his lab, he would paint their faces with black lines in order to examine the movements of their facial muscles.  The experiment would entail photographing his volunteers’ faces while subjecting them to various types of stimuli.

The Experiment Begins

In the beginning, Landis asked his subjects to complete some pretty harmless tasks:

  • Listen to jazz music
  • Smell ammonia
  • Read a passage from the Bible
  • Tell a lie

The results, however, were discouraging, so Landis decided he needed to step up his experiment. This was when he started to show his subjects pornographic images, medical photos, etc.  But Landis still struggled at getting the expressions he wanted. This would be where his experiment would start to take a very dark turn.

The Experiment Takes a Turn

Landis had his subjects stick their hand in a bucket full of live frogs and told them to search around the bottom of the bucket.  At the bottom were electrical wires that were at the ready to shock his unsuspecting subjects. Yet, the worst of the experiment was still to come…

OH RATS

Landis’ experiment reached its height when he brought in the rats.  Landis put a live rat in one of their hands, and in the other, a knife.  He then ordered them to decapitate the rat. If they refused, he would have them watch while he decapitated the live rat in front of them.  Their reactions became obvious as Landis had hoped, however they turned out to be way more complex than he expected.

This high-stress situation resulted in some:

  • Crying
  • Hysterically laughing
  • Freezing
  • Swearing

What I found shocking was that, though all were disgusted, two thirds still ended up following Landis’ order to decapitate the live rat!

The Results

The final results for his experiment were not really even noteworthy.  Landis’ experiment ended up being one huge mess just for him to find out that humans don’t have a common set of facial expressions.

If you are interested in learning about any other unethical experiments and/or experiments that just went so wrong, check out the video below.

So Bad Its Good

On By ehewitt24In film, review

My Review Of An Out Of This World Movie

Have you ever watched a movie so bad that it was good? I’m talking so absurdly strange and horrible that it’s hysterical.  If not, then oh boy, do I have a movie for you!

Earth Girls Are Easy is a romantic comedy from the 80’s, so you already know it’s about to be horrible but in the most perfectly entertaining way.  And as if that weren’t enough, in true 80’s movie fashion, there are randomly placed musical and dance numbers throughout the movie! And if that hasn’t sold you yet,  just wait until you hear the plot.

The movie is about a California woman named Valerie(Geena Davis), who has been dealing with her womanizing fiancé, Ted(Charles Rocket), when one day three furry aliens crash land in her pool.

Aliens pre shave
Pictured left to right: Mac(Goldblum), Wiploc(Carrey), Zeebo(Wayans)

After she brings the alien trio to her friend’s salon to be shaved, they find that underneath the fur are three handsome looking “men”. Now that the trio look human (and have time to kill while they wait for Valerie’s pool to be drained so they can fix their spaceship), they hit the streets of LA, specifically a night club.

And to just make the movie that much better the three aliens are played by no other than Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey, and Damon Wayans of course.  Jeff Goldblum plays Mac who seems to be the leader, maybe captain, of the alien trio. This means of course that he will be the one to start up a romance with our leading lady, Valerie.  I’d say their romance is one of love at first sight, but it’s more like love at first shave.

The aliens post shave
Top left: Wayans, Top right: Carrey, Bottom center: Goldblum

A very basic plot point in movies is the good ol classic makeover scene.  A lot of movies will give you the annoying and basic, she was beautiful all along trope.  You know the one where all the makeover consists of his putting her hair down, giving her contacts, and ditching the ill fitting clothes, and BOOM shes brand new and desirable now.  However, Earth Girls Are Easy implements a makeover scene done in a new and fun way. Instead of she was beautiful behind those glasses, it is, those aliens are hot under all that fur.

This might sound wild, so if you don’t believe me, go check out the trailer for yourself, you can’t make up such an exquisite movie.

Earth Girls Are Easy, I consider a true gem of its time that was unfortunately underappreciated.  It’s sci-fi, it’s a rom-com, it has random musical numbers. What’s not to love?

The Social Network

On By ehewitt24In The Social Network

Points to be covered

  • What was Eduardo’s mistake with the business incorporation documents?
  • What were the genius moments for Mark in creating Facebook?
  • What was the one thing Mark got out of meeting the Winklevoss twins?

My Review

The Social Network was an interesting movie that follows the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and how he created this highly successful social media platform and the lawsuits he faced after its rise of fame. In total honesty, I actually really enjoyed the movie but has some strong unpleasant feelings towards Mark. The flow of the movie was good, the film had beautiful shots, and then there was Mark…

From the very beginning I did not like Mark. The way he treated his girlfriend/date was horrible and then later when she broke up with him we saw just how petty and vengeful he could be. So later on in the film, it comes as no shock what he does to his supposed friend Eduardo, after Eduardo’s mistake with the business incorporation documents.

Eduardo moments before learning his shares were lowered

Eduardo’s mistake with the business incorporation documents was not reviewing all his legal paperwork, and just blinding trusting what was written in his contract, and thus signing his name without really looking at what the fine print said. This mistake really backfired for him because of his previous “mistake”, which would be freezing the bank account he set up for the business (Facebook) on Mark. This could have ruined the business’ reputation and the business itself, though Mark did end up not letting this happen. Eduardo froze the account to get Mark’s attention, and yes this did get Mark’s attention, however it also made Mark feel that he needed to take revenge for almost ruining his precious Facebook.

Though Mark often acted as a horrible person, in my opinion, I do have to acknowledge his ingeniousness in creating Facebook. One of his biggest genius moments in the film happened when Mark was approached by a classmate asking him whether he knew if a fellow classmate was dating anyone or looking to date anyone. It was this question/conversation that sparked a moment of genius in Mark and gave him the idea to add the relationship status feature to Facebook.  Another genius moment for Mark in creating Facebook would have to be opening up the social network to more than just Harvard students.  Facebook may have started off only for those who had a Harvard student id, however opening it up to more colleges (and eventually everyone) was a genius moment.

Whether Mark acknowledges it or not, I feel that he does owe getting his idea for Facebook to a certain set of twins… The one thing Mark got out of meeting the Winklevoss twins would have to be the idea for Facebook. The Winklevoss twins wanted Mark’s help in creating their HarvardConnection site, however their idea sparked Mark’s idea for Facebook and he basically ditched them to work on his idea. But it was the Winklevoss’ idea that got Mark thinking and gave him the idea to create the social media platform, Facebook.

First Blog Post

On By ehewitt24In introductionLeave a comment

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my first ever blog! My name is Emily and I am a Graphic Design major. This blog was made for my Understanding Social Media college class, so this is all brand new to me. What I plan on blogging about in the future should cover a variety of content but the main focus will probably include my art work and such. So enjoy this journey of mine as I explore blogging about my different interests and figuring out what all this blogging is about.