We tend to undermine the influence of cinema on human behavior because we conveniently relegate it to escapism or entertainment. In reality, movies tell us how we should act, and what we should be doing in the world, and promotes an ethical way for us to navigate the world.
Why is it important to understand how we relate to cinema, and how it impacts us? This is due to the fact that we are narrative-people. What this means is that not only is there a component to how our brains create, find, and reinforce patterns, but also how we socially rely upon the same thing to give us a sense of coherence (i.e., where we feel like we have an identity we can call our own), a sense of connection with one another, and a way we can navigate the world.
This desire to create patterns is faulty, at best, and it is rigidly predictive. Meaning, our brain wants to make sense of how the world works, even at the cost of accepting our own ontological blindspots. Our brain tells stories that are half-truths and it does it because it wants to protect us. Stories work for us, because without them, we don’t feel safe.
This is why favorite past-times like going to the movies feel so oddly familiar, because the cinema does what our brain does naturally.
Our brains didn’t evolve to watch movies—movies evolved to take advantage of the brains we have. Our tendency to want to respond physically to something that can’t touch us reflects its lack of ecological naturalness. The ways our brains are built to respond to situations in the real world profoundly shape our response to the film.
Movies provide us with patterns and ways to measure how we should be in the world. We watch them, shout at them, cry at them, and laugh at them. Cinema is humanity on display with itself. We watch movies, not only for entertainment but also we learn how to be human. If this sounds like I am overstating, let’s explore how mirror neurons work when we watch other people and things.
Mirror neurons are a controversial idea that still is under scrutiny. We know that there are ways in which humans learn behavior and that the brain is involved in the process, along with a host of neurochemicals that guide the process of interpreting the behaviors of others as they relate to us.
But, let’s suspend for a second, that there is no controversy, and that mirror neurons explain exactly how we learn and access information to discover how we should all act - well, then that brings us to intersubjectivity. Intersubjectivity, in short, is how we all agree upon what it means to act in the world - but, here’s the most important part to recognize - it’s about what we all agree upon to be normal in society.
Everything from ethics to religious beliefs, from what food is best for you to where it’s safe to walk in your local neighborhood - intersubjectivity via group agreements becomes the map that we silently follow to navigate our place across society.
Intersubjectivity refers to the shared understanding, perspectives, and interactions that occur between individuals. It's the way people relate to and communicate with each other, acknowledging each other's thoughts, feelings, and experiences. In other words, it's the bridge that connects our individual consciousness and helps us connect and communicate with others. [ChatGPT]
Think about the conversation. When two people share in conversation, they share in a common agreement that certain words and phrases mean the same thing. They rely on language to mediate how they communicate, agree upon, and connect with one another.
Empathy is another example of how intersubjectivity works. When someone shares their own experiences, they use narrative and emotion to relate to others. It is through our emotions that we connect.
Keep in mind this newsletter is about exploring what it means to be human. In this context, the word human is a fluid concept, and yet we all desire to be at the helm of identifying all of the contours of how to be better at being human in the world around us.
Being human is about being a narrative person. Part of this is realizing that having a narrative bias is not the same as acting in the world. Meaning, that our narrative bias is a cultural value, not a human value. This sounds like a contradicted myself — I did. Narrative works on 2 simultaneous levels: (1) Culture first, and (2) Normalizing certain narratives over others.
Mainly, because we think of narratives only as ways of identifying with a single string of elements - but, this is not how perception works in the brain. We pick and choose the images, languages, words, phrases, and values that fit within the incoherent map we’ve been given since our childhood. We’d love to romanticize that these all work together to give us a safe sense of psychological coherence (i.e., feeling of being a whole self) - no identity psychology argues that we are ‘whole’ beings - but, we are storied beings.
Psychological Coherence Model
We predict what things, conversations, and ideas will give us a solid sense of self and we choose them. That is our deepest embedded bias that culture has normalized that we should pursue - hence, why marketing relies on believing in the lie we are whole people. At best, we are decentered beings who are picking and choosing the stories that hide the lack, holes, and gaps within the experience of being.
We stratify meaning to meet our needs. But, we are told how to do this from a very young age. Our freedom of self is bound up in the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. As long we keep those stories going, we ensure that we never open up ourselves to new possibilities.
Without getting too academic - what does this mean practically? Your identity is a mix of different components that always play off of each other, and to maintain the illusion of feeling whole, we tell ourselves stories — or, we believe the ones that others claim about us.
According to some research, to give ourselves a sense of wholeness and coherence, we will take on symptoms of the groups we identify with so we can hide the fact that the stories centered around our identity are filled with holes. So, we continue the narrative identity so we can feel safe. If the groups identify with accepting certain things about other people (i.e., judgments), to feel a part of that group, we will accept those judgments - sometimes without challenging them. Our stories are always intersecting with the stories of others. We find ourselves in the stories of others by constantly comprising our own in the name of identity-based coherence. Movies rely on this model.
We watch movies so we can discover how to be in a world where unspoken expectations reside. More than this, we tell stories because the culture values the idea of hiding our own decentered nature. On top of this, we tell stories because it gives us a sense of safety.