Experiment: How do students react to inflammatory statements?
Ghent University carried out a unique experiment on its students recently to find out how far they could push them before they would argue with their professors in a crowded auditorium
‘Dare to Think’
The professors – in anthropology, media and business – made statements including “students don’t usually have very innovative ideas”, “not everything about the theory of evolution is correct” and “you are all addicts, and your dealer’s name is Steve Jobs”.
The classes – all of them in auditoriums with a large number of students – were secretly filmed to see if students would argue with their professors in front of the other students, and how long it would take.
The experiment was part of the university’s campaign Durf Denken (Dare to Think), which is a critical message, the university said in a statement, “in a society confronted with fake news on a daily basis”.
The idea of challenging the students, said rector Rik Van de Walle, was to test their ability to think critically and to debate in kind. “It’s important that people and institutions dare to speak up, without the idea that they have to ‘win’ the debate,” he said. “UGent is a critical university with a clear voice in public debate. We dare to think, it’s in our DNA, and we encourage everyone to do that.”
Hesitant to speak up
In terms of the students, it took them awhile to respond, and when they did, it was “less quick and critical” than Van de Walle would have liked, he told Radio 1. “But a few students did indeed dare to contradict their professors, which we were happy to see.”
The experiment also included fliers hung in the streets of Ghent and Kortrijk, where UGent also has a campus, with such statements as “poverty is a genetic trait”, “drug use is good for the economy” and “genital mutilation is the best way to prevent infections”.
The fliers were eventually covered with written remarks by passers-by, refuting the claims.
