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Us and Them

   2018    Culture
Can we bridge the divide between 'us' and 'them'? At a time when the whole world seems to be polarizing into irreconcilable camps, Morgan Freeman sets out on a journey in search of the forces that push us apart, from intolerance of differences to fear of outsiders, and the possibilities of coming together.
Series: The Story of Us

The Power of Us

   2018    Culture
Can we find a way to distribute power so that everyone has their say? A U.S. president explains the challenges of making decisions that affect hundreds of millions of lives, and Freeman learns about an African woman who has created a society without men. He explores how the rise of the internet may fundamentally change how democracy works.
Series: The Story of Us

Moral Licensing

   2019    Medicine
Moral psychology isn't always an easy thing to study. Experiments that actually puts people in what feels like a real scenario may get realistic results, but researchers must always balance the benefits of what we could learn with the safety and well-being of the people they study. Often what we learn from moral psychology experiments doesn't make humans look good.
We are imperfect creatures. But the more we learn about why and how we make the moral choices that we do, the better we'll be able to tackle difficult questions in the future.
Series: Mind Field

The Stanford Prison Experiment

   2019    Culture
It all begins as a study on the psychology of prison life led by Stanford psychology professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo. 24 volunteers - 12 guards and 12 prisoners - have agreed to spend the next two weeks recreating life in a correctional facility. Normal people can become monsters, given the right situation, that's the standard narrative of the Stanford Prison Experiment, one of the most famous psychological experiments of all time.
But what if the cause of its participants' cruel behavior wasn't what we've always been told?
Series: Mind Field

Behavior and Belief

   2019    Culture
Completely proving something can be difficult, if not impossible. So instead, we have the faith of the believer, the confidence interval of the scientist. What we think we know, we really only believe we know.
On this episode of Mind Field, we are going to take a look at a kind of lie we tell ourselves. And we are going to use belief to turn a lie... into a truth.
Series: Mind Field

Conformity

   2017    Culture
Human society is incredibly complex, and the duelling forces pushing us to conform and also to express our individuality are both necessary. Other people can influence us in good ways and in not-so-good ways.
Michael Stevens takes a look into the human urge to conform and just how strong it is against our own beliefs and sense of selves.
Series: Mind Field Season 1