Yesterday I watched a YouTube video about writing your first plot point. I learned that characters act to avoid pain. When given a choice, they’ll choose the thing that gives them the least pain.
Today I went for a walk, and listened to The Hidden Brain podcast. Somehow I randomly chose an episode that talked about the Milgram experiment. As many know, that was an experiment where a man in a lab coat asked people to repeatedly shock people. They were told it was an experiment to see if punishment improved learning. Of course, the experiment was really about the person administering the painful shocks. Would good people do bad things because an authority figure told them to?
As the podcast went on, it changed the focus from the person administering the shocks, to the person in the lab coat. What was it like to be the person asking people to do things they likely didn’t want to do? The conclusion? People vastly underestimate the influence they have on others. Why? Because while they are experiencing pain in asking for something, the person being asked has to choose…..do they do the thing being asked, or do they experience the pain of saying “no”?
Turns out, it is really hard to experience the pain of saying “no” to people. And, the more people that ask, or influence, the harder it is to say no. A group of people trying to influence someone is much harder to say no to than an individual. This is what explains both altruistic behavior (like donating to charity…..it is harder to say no than to give up some money) and wrong behavior (like, as an extreme, Nazism).
First, I’m fascinated by the fact that I happened to have these two experiences on back to back days. If I believed in signs from nature……
Second, I’m really interested in exploring this idea in my book(s). I certainly don’t want to excuse bad behavior, but I might want to explore why bad behavior happens (or at least, some of it). Why do characters choose what they choose? Clearly, some are bad, or good. But most of our day to day choices are about pain avoidance. Do I go to the store, or order delivery, or make dinner? The answer is different different days, but it is largely driven by pain avoidance, apparently.
In my science fiction book, there are factions. Are there factions because people are born that way, or because they are raised that way? Do people choose to help others because that is the right thing to do, or because it would cause them more pain not to help them? What inner conflict does a character have in making a decision to help someone or not?
In my fantasy book, an assassin kills children. He does it because he is certain that some children will cause the return of demons to the world, and that only by killing them can he help keep the world safe. He, and his organization, has chosen the lesser of two pains. What happens when someone (tries to?) convinces him that isn’t the case. That those children will not necessarily bring evil back to the world?
Anyway, that’s what I’m thinking about today. The choices we make, and why we make them.