Observer effect
by Jennifer Jo, on March 5th, 2012
I was aware of the observer effect before, but I began to think about it in depth after we’ve discussed it in class. The fact that our behavior changes when others are observing us is quite obvious. When we are aware of other’s presence, we tend to act carefully since we don’t want to give bad impression to the observers. Reality shows on television consider observer effect too: since there are viewers, and program directors can gain more profit when more people watch their programs, they tend to concentrate on aesthetic or auditory values that can be shown through videos or images. Recently I’ve watched a documentary called “True taste show” which reveals how reality television food shows are made. When food shows show us the restaurant, how foods are made and how popular it is, most of the viewers just accept that information as true. However, in “True taste show” it shows how the director tells people lines to say, such as: “the perfect harmony of this and that is heavenly.” Some of the customers of restaurants were paid to give various reactions and positive comments, no matter how good the food was. The cooks, restaurant, and even the foods didn’t exist prior to the show. People were hired to act as cooks, an abandoned place was quickly remodeled to look like a proper restaurant, and foods were improvised and didn’t necessarily taste good. Some customers in the restaurant were asked to make positive comment about the food that they haven’t tried before. This underlying scheme of food shows is motivated by profit, but it is another observer effect in essence. Because there are ‘observers’, who can even bring some profit, people act differently or even make up false situation for their benefits. But even without the profit motivation, people still try to control their behavior and conceal their true natures in front of the observers. I got very confused at the end, because this shows us that character of people we observe is not always true. It seems like the more we know about the nature of truth the further we are getting away from the truth.
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Important Dates Y12 Orals: May 22, May 31, June 5, June 7.
June 11: Y12 TOK Day
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"The arts, ideas, natural beauty, and good conversation provide lasting pleasure."
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"The less people know, the more stubbornly they know it."
—Werner Vogels
Your Daily Chinese Character
Comments . . . . . . are open only to students of the class, but if you are a non-student and would like to comment you can email Mr. MacKnight at ericmacknight AT mac DOT com.
Is TOK a Philosophy Course? YES, in the sense that the name of the course itself is in any dictionary effectively synonymous with "epistemology."
NO, in the sense that IB-specific ToK has many philosophical elements, but is not just philosophy. ToK is at root an interdiscipinary course that allows students to become aware of how the six subject-groups on the corners on the Diploma hexagon overlap and integrate. The interdisciplinary aspect is the crucial thing . . . .
—Bruce Bartlett
Le Collège français
Toronto, Canada
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"A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking."
—Steven Wright
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Webs & Chains Natura in reticulum sua genera connexit,
non in catenam: homines non possunt nisi
catenam sequi, cum non plura simul
possint sermone exponere.
Nature knits up her kinds in a network, not
in a chain; but men can follow only by
chains because their language can’t handle
several things at once.
—Albrecht von Haller (tr. Howard Nemerov)
[Epigraph to Nemerov's poem, "The Dependencies"]
About This Blog Until June 2011, this TOK blog was managed solely by Eric MacKnight. Beginning in the fall of 2011, its name changed to "DCSZ TOK Class Blog", and since then it has been used by all TOK students at Dulwich College Suzhou. The lead teacher is Julie Connah, assisted by Alan Connah and Eric MacKnight. Content posted before August 2011 was written by Eric MacKnight and his students at Suzhou Singapore International School. In August 2012 John Fitzgerald replaced Alan Connah in the DCSZ TOK team.
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It does seem like the more we journey on, the more we are further away from the end of this TOK journey, but we are actually sailing onward! Just think about quantum theorem, a particle can be in many places at the same time and that means that you can be many places at the same time. It is quite difficult to make sense of that. Moreover, everyone’s way of perceiving the world can be different to your own. So what does the world look like to other people? Is my color blue same as your color blue? Moreover, our brain is set in a way that perceives and senses only the things that are useful to us. For instance, we feel that the table is hard but it is mostly empty space. And there is a story I have to add. People cannot or may not be able to perceive things that they are not used to. The Native americans couldn’t see the European fleets when the fleets first appeared on the horizon. This is because they have no knowledge about ships. They knew there were something there because of the waves I think. It was after days and days of observing that one Native American was finally able to see the European fleet. (I watched this from TOK-ish movie with my brother.) So I am afraid there may be objects, figure or even spirits around me that I cannot perceive (but they are there).
I think it can be disturbing or frustrating or even “scary” to learn these new things in TOK, but I am definitely enjoying it as well. (Wooo Jennifer, I think there is an alien behind you but you can’t see it)