(The application of Cognitive Bias on external events.)
Real or Fake?
Is it possible that the Great Oscar Slap was staged? Or was it the genuine reaction of someone in the midst of a stressful situation?
Looking around at all the commentary is no help. Much of the argument rests on the observation of certain evidence. In the clip of the video of the Will Smith/Chris Rock situation we see several tell tale signs. From start to finish, some of the often quoted points are:
- GI Jane Joke
- Will Smith laughing while Jada stops and shows a pain face
- Chris Rock watching Will enter the stage.
- No Security or other persons otherwise stopping Will
- Chris not moving back.
- Chris moving away from sudden movement.
- Will slapping rather than punching,
- Chris recovering without expression or retaliation.
- Chris making awkward joke while Will struts off stage
- Will continuing to barrage Chris from his seat with verbal commands.
- Will justifying his behavior in his acceptance speech.
Let’s follow some of these pieces of information with each topic according to some of the arguments I’ve seen.
It’s Fake. The Slap was Staged:
The fact that Will is laughing at the joke prior to walking on stage shows us that he knows what is coming. Chris’s lack of reaction when Will is walking towards him shows an expectation. If it wasn’t staged, why did no one stop or intercede in Will’s advance, especially security. Chris’s facial expressions does not show surprise and he moves his face away from the slap in a manner that suggest choreography.
If Will were serious, he would have punched Chris instead of slapping him. Will actually slapped him on the shoulder, not the face. Chris did not fight back or even look angry at getting slapped on national television, instead, he continued to make jokes about it being the best night of television ever. Will then makes a speech paralleling his role as King Richard to his own behavior that is well rehearsed.
It’s Real. The Slap was NOT Staged:
Will is laughing until he sees the pain on his wife’s face. Chris’s reaction when Will is walking towards him shows that he is not sure of what is going on, but ‘the show must go on’. No one stopped Will because, well, it’s Will Smith. Things like this happen at these events so it is not a surprise or it just caused enough confusion to warrant a lag time of action on the part of security. Chris is anticipating something, but his reaction to move his face away from danger is normal and expected.
Will not punching Chris is an example of toxic masculinity expectation. Chris continuing his monologue, albeit shaken up, is an example of this professionalism and experience, as well as a slight form of shock as he attempts to understand what just happened. Will’s verbal assault once he returned to his seat reflects genuine anger and his acceptance speech is an attempt to justify his earlier behavior.
These two perspectives are, in general, the arguments for or against, and does not include all the other various theories that are rampant in this situation, such as Will’s autobiographical statements of his own father, or the internal marital problems that exist between the two.
Could it have been a staged event? Yes, that is certainly a possibility. At the end of the day, the Oscars are still a venue for entertainment and that equals illusion. Rehearsing an incident outside of the formal routine in order to generate buzz is not unheard of in the Land of Hollywood. Even if it were a simple collusion between two people – in this case Will Smith and Chris Rock – to possibly assist each other in some fashion (i.e. give credence to an acceptance speech or possibly increase ticket sales for upcoming stand up or even to bring attention to some social inequity as some have proposed) there would have been others that were ‘in the know’, from Jada or Security, or the production team.
Even applying Occam’s Razor to this doesn’t hold water, because it is entertainment and there is a lot of backstage planning in order to bring a simple, believable event to the audience.
Was it real? Yes, that is certainly a possibility, probability aside. At the end of the day, these types of behaviors are well recorded in association with these award events, from Kanye’s upstaging of Taylor Swift at the VMAs to a streaker at the 46th Academy Awards. It is one of the cornerstones of celebrity news to showcase the out of touch behaviors of those we venerate.
However, what I would like to illustrate is this. Again, not the actual event, but what is going on around the event. I would like to bring the camera back, so to speak, away from what happened and talk about what is going on…
With Us.
What are We doing?
Some of what is happening is the application of bias toward an event.
We, the people, are looking at this happenstance and trying to make sense of it. In order to do so, our brains are engaging in a number of complex processes. A couple of the ‘deepest’ reasons is that we need to know if there is a threat or not and a need for certainty. These unconscious processes work to define the world around us. In this case, we see the event and start looking for meaning.
We engage in what is known as attribution bias where we are defining and explaining what we and other people are doing through our own perceptual environment to generate the certainty about the event. And right behind that, is a form of confirmation bias, in which we interpret the observed behavior to support the attributed meaning.
So, if you believe that the slap was staged, your brain is going to skew the evidence in order to do so. If you believe the slap was not staged, your brain is going to skew the evidence in order to do so.
The evidence itself, remains the same. It is the observer that assigns meaning.
It also explains some of the ancillary reactions, such as people defending Will’s behavior, or exalting Chris’s response; bringing attention to toxic masculinity theory or to a medical condition.
All these filters work to define meaning and experience, and, by no means is it as simple as the two biases that I utilized to illustrate a point. We are, all of us, engaging in these factors all the time. The efforts that our brains are making do so by using short cuts – heuristics – because that is what is needed for survival.
So, in that vein, if you believe it was a staged event, that is the truth. The ‘evidence’ can reasonably support that statement. If you believe it was not, that is the truth, for the same reason. The actuality is that all we know is what we saw, taken out of context, quickly defined and even more quickly judged based on our own brains’ cognitive errors.
At the Oscars, actor Will Smith looked like he slapped comedian and actor Chris Rock and then yelled at him from his seat. That is all we really know. And even that can be questioned. But that is a topic for another day.