@Tim James It's that na na na, na-na-na-na-na bit that does it, I find
@Marc Joan...they found out nuffink common sense could not predicted, and my parents felt bad about it afterwards.
I was filmed, shut alone inside a lift and left there, with a life size mannequin sitting propped in one corner, head slumped, dressed like a man.
I was immediately uneasy. 1) small space 2) shut in alone 3) weird object They watched me staring, then frowning, then the lip started to wobble, the face creased and then tears and then sobbing. I wasn't sure whether or not it was a person. If it was a person, there was something terribly the matter with him. If it wasn't, then what was it, and why was it there, and what if it suddenly started moving? Homunculus syndrome. Huge, sinister dolly. Agh....primal terror!
Ohhhhh..... it took me a minute. You were part of a fear experiment. Shame on them. Not your parents. Just ... general shame on the general 'them' for not knowing better.
They used to say Skinner did things to his daughter. He's the operant conditioning guy. It's the behaviorists who always get accused of messing around with people and their lives.
And to be fair, they often do advocate what other people would call manipulation. I can't find the story now but a woman trained her husband to put his towels in the hamper. I think she withhold sex or something like it. Maybe it was that she offered him sex every time he successfully put a towel in the hamper.
Anyway... I had a huge argument once with a behavioral psychologist who thought this was an excellent example of getting what you wanted without conflict. I thought it was manipulative.