How do you know what's true? - Sheila Marie Orfano — Transcript

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1. 0:09A samurai is found dead in a quiet bamboo grove.
2. 0:13One by one, the crime’s only known witnesses recount their version
3. 0:18of the events that transpired.
4. 0:20But as they each tell their tale,
5. 0:23it becomes clear that every testimony is plausible, yet different.
6. 0:27And each witness implicates themselves.
7. 0:31This is the premise of “In a Grove,” a short story published in the early 1920s
8. 0:36by Japanese author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.
9. 0:40Though many know this tale of warring perspectives by a different name:
10. 0:44“Rashomon.”
11. 0:45In 1950, Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa adapted two of Akutagawa’s stories
12. 0:52into one film.
13. 0:53This movie introduced the world to an enduring cultural metaphor
14. 0:57that has transformed our understanding of truth, justice and human memory.
15. 1:06The Rashomon effect describes a situation
16. 1:08in which individuals give significantly different but equally conceivable accounts
17. 1:13of the same event.
18. 1:16Often used to highlight the unreliability of eyewitnesses,
19. 1:19the Rashomon effect usually occurs under two specific conditions.
20. 1:24The first: there’s no evidence to verify what really happened.
21. 1:28And the second: there’s pressure to achieve closure,
22. 1:31often provided by an authority figure trying to identify the definitive truth.
23. 1:36But the Rashomon effect undermines the very idea of a singular, objective truth.
24. 1:43In the source material,
25. 1:44Akutagawa and Kurosawa use the tools of their media
26. 1:48to give each character’s testimony equal weight,
27. 1:51transforming each witness into an unreliable narrator.
28. 1:55Without any hints on who’s sharing the most accurate account,
29. 1:58the audience can’t tell which character to trust.
30. 2:02Instead, each testimony takes on a truthful quality,
31. 2:06and the audience is left doubting their convictions
32. 2:08as they guess who ended the samurai’s life.
33. 2:11Some might find this frustrating because the plot subverts expectations
34. 2:15of how mysteries usually end.
35. 2:18But by refusing to provide a clear answer,
36. 2:21these two artists capture the messiness and complexity of truth and human memory.
37. 2:27Neuroscientists have found that when we form a memory,
38. 2:30our interpretation of visual information is influenced
39. 2:33by our previous experiences and internal biases.
40. 2:37Some of these biases are unique to individuals,
41. 2:40but others are more universal.
42. 2:42For example, egocentric bias can influence people
43. 2:45to subconsciously reshape their memories
44. 2:48in ways that cast a positive light on their actions.
45. 2:51Even if we were able to encode a memory accurately,
46. 2:54recalling it incorporates new information that changes the memory.
47. 2:58And when we later recall that event,
48. 3:00we typically remember the embellished memory instead of the original experience.
49. 3:06These underlying psychological phenomena mean that the Rashomon effect
50. 3:10can pop up anywhere.
51. 3:12In biology, scientists starting from the same dataset
52. 3:15and applying the same analytical methods, frequently publish different results.
53. 3:21Anthropologists regularly grapple with the impact personal backgrounds can have
54. 3:25on an expert's perception.
55. 3:27In one famous case, two anthropologists visited the Mexican village of Tepoztlan.
56. 3:33The first researcher described life in the town as happy and contented,
57. 3:37while the second recorded residents as paranoid and disgruntled.
58. 3:41Experts aside, the Rashomon effect can also impact the general public,
59. 3:46particularly when it comes to the perception of complicated world events.
60. 3:50For example, following a 2015 security summit
61. 3:54between the United States and leaders from the Arab States,
62. 3:57media reports about the summit varied enormously.
63. 4:01Some stated that it had gone smoothly, while others called it a complete failure.
64. 4:07It's tempting to fixate on why we have competing perceptions,
65. 4:11but perhaps the more important question the Rashomon effect raises is,
66. 4:15what is truth anyway?
67. 4:17Are there situations when an “objective truth” doesn’t exist?
68. 4:21What can different versions of the same event tell us
69. 4:24about the time, place and people involved?
70. 4:28And how can we make group decisions if we’re all working
71. 4:31with different information, backgrounds, and biases?
72. 4:36Like most questions, these don’t have a definitive answer.
73. 4:41But the enduring importance of Akutagawa’s story
74. 4:45suggests there may be value in embracing the ambiguity.