• gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    50·
    8 hours ago

    In 1973, Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genovés set out to test a hypothesis. He had been struck by the connection between violence and sexuality in monkeys. “Most conflicts,” he noted, “are about sexual access to ovulating females.”

    But would this apply to humans, too? To find out, Genovés asked a British boat builder to make a 12x7 metre raft called the Acali on which he planned to sail with 10 sexually attractive young people across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Mexico.

    To spur conflict onboard, Genovés minimised opportunities for privacy.

    The boat would have no engines and would sail towards the Caribbean, just in time for hurricane season. Genovés knew that the Acali was sailing into danger but thought science justified the risk. “I believe that in a dangerous situation people will act on their instincts and I will be able to study them.”

    wild

    He put women in charge, in part to reflect what he thought was growing gender equality. The raft was captained by Maria Björnstam and Edna Reves was ship doctor; men were given menial tasks. “I wonder if having women in power will lead to less violence or more,” mused Genovés. “Maybe men will become more frustrated when women are in charge, and try to take over power.”

    Not that Genovés’ raft was an antidote to the patriarchy. With a Caribbean hurricane brewing, Maria, the experienced ship’s captain, recommended they pull into a port to sit out the storm. Genovés, fearing the ruin of his experiment if they did so, mutinied and took control of the raft.

    oh the irony

    But Genovés was symbolically castrated later, on the Atlantic crossing. A huge container ship bore down on the little raft and he panicked. Only Maria kept a cool head and organised flares to ward off the looming ship. After that, the guinea pigs turned on the scientist: Maria became captain again.

    Overthrown, Genovés retreated below deck and collapsed into depression, made worse by news on the radio that his university wanted to be dissociated from the scandalous Sex Raft headlines. While lying there he started to cry for the first time since childhood and had an existential epiphany, writing: “Only one has shown any kind of aggression and that is me, a man trying to control everyone else, including himself.”

    Was the Peace Project a failure? Fé argues it was a great success, even though the anthropologist couldn’t see it: “He was so focused on the violence and conflict, but he had it right in his hands. We started out as them and us and we became us.”

    For Lindeen, it’s poignant that Fé praises the experiment. “If only [Genovés] had listened to why people were on the raft – Mary escaping an abusive husband, the racism Fé had suffered – he would have learned about the consequences of violence and how sometimes we can overcome it by overcoming our differences.”

    yeah i guess genoves was so focused on the science, he forgot to look at the humans involved.

      • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        24·
        6 hours ago

        I remember hearing there were one or two hookups, all supported by the rest of the group giving them as much privacy as possible. Yeah, turns out that if you remove societal pressures and leave people alone, they tend to be pretty chill.

  • QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    79·
    15 hours ago

    this “experiment” is SO much funnier than this post implies, the idea of the experiment is that in nature if you put males and females together they will either turn to 100% hate or 100% lust.

    When the people were just having fun on the boat away from society he was upset that they weren’t fucking he would act like an asshole to them.

    When they inevitably got sick of his ass and yelled at him he wrote in his notes something along the lines of “I think my experiment is leaning twords pure rage side”

    there’s so much more to it that I’m forgetting but this video is 100% a watch https://youtu.be/BHXw3E1VqK4

  • HexesofVexes@lemmy.worldEnglish
    173·
    9 hours ago

    So, hear me out here, there is a huge reproduction crisis out there. In theory, you could try to replicate this study without the researcher being an asshole and see if it still works out and this would be a valuable line of research that could technically get funded.

    I’m going to need a decent ship, some volunteers, and a 101 day supply of daiquiris.

    Edit: (For clarity - this is scientific reproduction, not human reproduction)

        • FatVegan@leminal.spaceEnglish
          2·
          8 hours ago

          There used to be that joke on 30 Rock about MILF island. It used to be the most absurd thing they could think of, and that’s kind of a thing now.

        • ameancow@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          9 hours ago

          A Tattoo parlor and modeling agency contained entirely on a raft floating adrift in the ocean? AND they restore custom motorcycles AND they’re all people with dwarfism? SON YOU GOT YOURSELF A SHOW.

  • HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    227·
    1 day ago

    I tgink I heard of that. Didn’t the “scientist” just like self isolate, angry that they didn’t fight eachother, while the other passengers became lifelong friends and had a great time?

    • its_kim_love@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      315·
      1 day ago

      It went beyond that. In an attempt to ferment discontent in the group he started reading their reports out loud. Airing all their dirty laundry. Instead of getting them mad at each other he basically forced them to settle all their issues and form together, closer than ever. After that didn’t work he started trying to usurp authority from the captain that he selected because he thought as a woman she would crumble under the pressure of command. His greatest accomplishment as the new captain was damaging a fuel line and failing to fix it by swimming in the fuel and water.

      If I remember correctly they had to rescue him and distract him while they fixed it themselves and after that he basically sulked in the corner of the raft. Only getting the balls to try something near the end of the experiment, trying to Shanghai the raft and expand the experiment to try and force his theories into reality. After they finally got back the subjects would get together every few years to relive the good old days without him.

      It’s ironic, by trying to get them to hate each other he accidentally became something for all of them to rally against.

      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.todayEnglish
        46·
        17 hours ago

        That’s awesome. Like he was really hoping for some dismal and dark exposé on “savage human nature” a la “Lord of the Flies”, and at every turn, proven wrong by people who were happy to just get along and cooperate for mutual benefit…

        … Which should come as a complete shock, social species that we are! /s

        I think these desperately dark tales of people turning on each other in sociological contexts is another propaganda tool to put this idea in our heads that without “qualified leaders” we’d all just be grunting and beating each other over the head with rocks.

        Nah, someone with something to gain has to motivate us to fight each other. What if we just said “lol, anyway” and kept getting along on the raft?

        • BeMoreCareful@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          11 hours ago

          Lord of the Flies was also a direct answer to a book that was really popular during England’s colonial hey day(?) called the Island, I think.

          Basically, English colonial culture wasn’t as good as we might have thought.

        • Valmond@lemmy.worldEnglish
          16·
          14 hours ago

          Sole problem left: there are those arseholes like the “leader” here actively trying to destroy every good thing. Fix that and we can have a wonderful society IMO.

        • its_kim_love@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          12·
          16 hours ago

          Exactly my thoughts. The real cause of crime and violence in the abstract is inequality in the macro and social disorder in the micro.

        • bookmeat@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
          81·
          17 hours ago

          That social bond doesn’t scale and it is why have had to invent government, police, schools, hospitals, etc. The guy’s idea was right (imo), he just had the wrong scale.

      • null@piefed.nullspace.lolEnglish
        147·
        24 hours ago

        ferment discontent

        I’m stealing this typo.

        (It’s “foment”, but I love the imagery of rotten, festering discontent)

      • napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.orgEnglish
        53·
        23 hours ago

        After they finally got back the subjects would get together every few years to relive the good old days without him.

        The linked article in the post claims that the crew never met again until the person filming the documentary tracked some of them down.

        They had not met since the Peace Project docked in Mexico 43 years earlier, so the reunion was poignant.

      • Admetus@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        13·
        19 hours ago

        It’s ironic, by trying to get them to hate each other he accidentally became something for all of them to rally against.

        Like reverse Stockholm syndrome.

      • hakase@lemmy.zipEnglish
        32·
        23 hours ago

        It’s ironic, by trying to get them to hate each other he accidentally became something for all of them to rally against.

        Major Payne already taught us that this works:

        “They hate you!”

        “Good. It’ll draw them close together, make 'em a team.”

        • vrek@programming.devEnglish
          18·
          23 hours ago

          Fun fact a lot of people, including myself, believe the invention of reality TV was actually the writer strike in early 2000s. Basically TV writers went to the producers and said “you make all these millions and only pay us this small amount when we are the reason people watch these shows”. The producers basically said “fuck you we will make TV shows without writers”

          That created reality TV in America and panel shows in the UK.

      • tacosanonymous@mander.xyzEnglish
        17·
        21 hours ago

        I mostly agree with the other honey about “foment.”

        I just want to add that all of the social experiments I’ve ever seen, participates in, and/or ran nothing brings people together like a common enemy.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
      27·
      24 hours ago

      It goes to show that humans are actually good to each other on an individual level or in small groups.

      It’s when we place ourselves in massive groups and communities of thousands or millions or billions of people that we start to act terribly to other humans.

      • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
        161·
        23 hours ago

        “tribalism” being the word we use to label when a civilization engages in pointless violence when it’s tribes that avoid this bullshit naturally by excluding the waste of time members of society who try to break society is so frustrating to me

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.todayEnglish
        31·
        18 hours ago

        the perverted ones yea, scientists usually dont have trouble finding SOs. i remember reading a book about prion research and one of them has a “unusual predilection towards young boys, in SE asia” where he was studying kuru, although the book dint come out in say it, they were implying he was a pedo. i believed he worked for a well known university in a UC.

  • Gork@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    23·
    24 hours ago

    By his actions to stir up drama, I can probably say with confidence that he did not get laid on that journey.

  • MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    12·
    23 hours ago

    There’s an HBO Max original reality series called The Raft that sets out to “replicate” this “experiment” while injecting the usually reality competition faire. It’s a pretty fun watch