looking back at the arg spreadsheet with info about the kids in the institute
w the context from ep 53 we can assume that the children’s name’s picked out in yellow are the ones chosen for experimentation and to be catalysed
discussing this w my friends got me thinking about it again
Sam was placed as highest scoring on the tests but allegedly did not get accepted – why?
Operating under the illusion that all of the participants highlighted in yellow were chosen as test subjects (like Gerry) to undergo transmutation rituals. Sam was included in this!!
All of the accepted children had common aspects of their scores.
All were Stage 3 Piaget – this is an assessment of a child's stage of cognitive development and checks whether a child understands core logical concepts. There are four Piaget stages and Stage 3 is the concrete operational stage, and the highest for children of that age category. This stage is when logic develops and children become better at considering how others might view a situation.
All were Level 3 Kohlberg – this evaluates a person’s stage of moral reasoning. Most children are only Level 2 (pre-conventional level), but all of the chosen children are level 3. Stage 3 is often nicknamed the “Good Boy/Nice Girl” level, because the individual’s thinking is about what society expects of them and how to earn people’s approval. Could possibly be linked to how willing the children would be to undergo the experiments if an adult told them they were expected to do it.
Everybody had to have high prosocial scores, which is a measure of how helpful or social a person is. The prosociality scale determines how useful somebody would be to society, so the Institute evidently needed people who could contribute a lot.
All accepted candidates passed the Sally-Anne test, which tests theory of mind. It checks if children can understand that other people have beliefs, thoughts and perspectives that differ from their own. The children who passed evidently had a good grasp of theory of mind, but I don’t know why the Institute needed this for transmutations.
Their ultimatum had to be fair. I’m assuming this is linked to the Ultimatum Game, In the test, one player proposes how to split a sum of money, and the second player can accept or reject it; if rejected, both players get nothing. I assume they had a scientist being the proposer and the child as the responder, and if the child rejected the offer, they were not accepted into the program. Could have been to study the child’s willingness to cooperate.
Everybody’s empathy index had to be above 85%, with Sam and Gerry scoring particularly high. Unsure of a specific test they used for this, and i’m not sure what empathy has to do with the nature of the tests, but obviously if it’s a requirement for the program then it’s relevant.
The Milgram test is a test of obedience to figures of authority. The original Yale study involved ordinary people giving (fake) electric shocks to an actor who they genuinely believed was being hurt, and would continue to do it if the scientists in the room told them they had to. Assuming this is a direct repeat of the test, all but one of the accepted participants had low to moderate scores on this, indicating that they questioned the scientists and would not progress far with the tests. This could possibly be another demonstration of empathy, or perhaps the child’s own morals.
The last test on the list is the Asch test. This is a measure of conformity. All but one of the participants scored low to moderate, again showing low levels of obedience (similar to Milgram). The Institute clearly needed children who would think and speak for themselves.
The one person who scored high on both the Milgram and Asch tests yet was selected in yellow for the program was Sam. The question is why did these scores not get him rejected? Or were they the reason he was eventually turned down? This is the only thing that marks him as separate to the other test subjects.
There’s a possibility that Sam was chosen for the program and is actually an external, and he just doesn’t know it yet, or doesn’t remember it.
anyway i just wanna hear people's thoughts on this because gerry being back and there being more discussion on the experiments on children had me thinking about this again
