Strange tricks

[Clippy]

I see 'ol Dezza Brown is up to new tricks again.

[VectraMan]

Is he going to predict something after it happens again?

[Moscow Mule]

Why the f are they live blogging a tv show?

[Clippy]

Anyone see this?

The kid didn't seem to do much 'flying' - just reduce altitude and lower the landing gear - the simulator did the rest.

Another Derren Brown con.

[MarillionFan]

The missus watched it last night and just said 'this is crap - actors actors actors!'

[Zippy]

The missus watched it last night and just said 'this is crap - actors actors actors!'

It did feel like that. The subject was too unquestioning.

[d000hg]

Anyone see this?

The kid didn't seem to do much 'flying' - just reduce altitude and lower the landing gear - the simulator did the rest.

Another Derren Brown con.

Doofus. He wasn't taught how to land a plane, just to believe he was doing it. Though I agree this one wasn't that interesting.

[NickFitz]

Doofus. He wasn't taught how to land a plane, just to believe he was doing it. Though I agree this one wasn't that interesting.

No, he was taught - or more accurately, conditioned - to believe that he could do it, or at least try: that he could conquer his own fear and attempt something that seemed to him impossible.

I thought it was interesting that at the start, when they faked the fire in the next room, he displayed a textbook example of the Bystander Effect yet at the end, the reason he gave for having been willing to attempt the landing was, "When they needed somebody, nobody stood up, and I didn't want to be one of those people who didn't stand up" - quite a significant psychological reversal.

[d000hg]

I wasn't watching closely, was the simulator doing a programmed landing or was someone else doing 90% of the work so they could time it with his actions? But clearly he believed he was doing it, that was the whole point, that he thought it was real.

The bystander example early on was odd. Not responding to a mugging in the street is one thing but nudging the person next to you is hardly the same thing. Even I would do that and I'm pretty introverted and antisocial.

[NickFitz]

I wasn't watching closely, was the simulator doing a programmed landing or was someone else doing 90% of the work so they could time it with his actions? But clearly he believed he was doing it, that was the whole point, that he thought it was real.

The bystander example early on was odd. Not responding to a mugging in the street is one thing but nudging the person next to you is hardly the same thing. Even I would do that and I'm pretty introverted and antisocial.

He was actually "flying" the simulator, but as with all modern aircraft virtually everything is automated. All he really had to do was turn off the autopilot, hold the stick steady, and flick a couple of switches when he was told to. If they'd been willing to let him try it with a real plane he would have been all right

The "smoke from the next room" thing is one of the classic experiments demonstrating the bystander effect. I'd be shoving the others out of the room shouting "Get a move on you dozy twunts, the place is on fire!" which is why I wouldn't have got on the programme