FLASHING IN A LIFT

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Given today's Half Nekkid Wednesday's theme is August 12 : Flashing, I want to tell you a tale about a game of dares in which I had to flash in a lift, an
elevator to my American friends.

This dare came about after my friend and I attended a social psychology class. The lecturer introduced us students to the Asch conformity experiments. Solomon Asch, an American and Polish immigrant psychologist, conducted a series of experiments in the 1950s and 1960s, the results of which suggested that individuals often conform with the group which they find themselves in - groupthink or peer pressure if you like.

One of his experiments involved four people in a lift, three of those people were told to face the rear of the lift. The fourth unsuspecting person, unaware that it was a staged experiment, enters the lift and very soon also faces the rear of the lift.

This experiment was aired as part of Candid Camera episode in 1962. The psychology lecturer played the the 'Face the Rear' clip that was shown on the Candid Camera television series. The clip's quite funny.

In a pub after the psychology lecture, my friend and I discussed this clip and concluded that individuals aren't perhaps as 'individual' as they think they are when in a group setting. After a few beers, we challenged each other to conduct a similar experiment. My friend challenged me to flash while in a lift, and I dared my friend to fart while in a lift. We wanted to know whether others in the lift would do the same as us!

The next day, a Wednesday as it happened, was the appointed day for our joint experiment.

Below is a photo of me more than half-naked flashing in a lift. I probably got a bit too excited with my scientific research! (The eagle-eyed will no doubt have noticed that I took this photo with a very early prototype of a smartphone!) I can report that no one flashed me while I was flashing the occupants of the lift. In fact, the occupants emptied the lift as soon as they could!

My friend, in the same lift but not at the same time, did fart in a lift but he reported that no one else farted though occupants remained in the lift until they reached the floor they wanted to exit the lift. Farting is clearly more acceptable in a lift than flashing, but farting in a lift is so wrong on many levels!

Solomon Asch's theory clearly needs serious revision in light of these robust Wednesday research findings!

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