A fascinating and sympathetic documentary which explores the psychological consequences of having an adamantly held belief disproven. Although the film- makers are non-judgemental, it is hard not to laugh at the absurd confidence of the doomsday believers as they are followed around in the weeks before the "End of the World". However, when May 21 comes and goes without incident, you feel genuine sympathy at their bewilderment. These are just ordinary, perfectly likable people who fell into the trap of certainty and suffered the extreme discomfort of cognitive dissonance when proved wrong. It could happen to anyone. Could it happen to you? Possibly - but this film will help to arm you against it.
2 Reviews
The fear of being wrong
kweku-2754021 July 2018
Right between Your Ears (2016), directed by Sheila Marshall and co-created with Kris De Mayer blazes through a simple sequence of cliffhangers that excels, exhilarates, empathizes, and somehow, manages to encapsulate the research frontier of social psychology, behavioral economics and neuroscience in a gripping story.
What does it mean to be wrong? This brilliant, brave and bold film revolves around a simple premise: a group of people thoroughly and absolutely convinced they had figured out when the world was going to end. Now, you might believe that this is obviously wrong (or you wouldn't be reading this review), but then halfway through, you are not so sure. You get a clear sense that this could easily have been you: the mind is a lot more complicated than it seems, and is always creating ways to defend you - not only from the outside world - but even from yourself.
Right Between Your Ears does an excellent job of combining scientific research with an excellent narrative, with smart and light editing and comfortable pacing to boot. In the end, all of the characters become impossible to objectively point the finger at, without implicating yourself. Even as the conspiracy theory tightens its cold grip, you feel for them all, because at some level, they want to understand better, and the closer they get to doing so, the more they seem to retreat to the comfort of their current understanding. It's hard to not see that in ourselves, and the film feels like watching a mirror sometimes.
By putting science in the service of story instead of the other way around, Marshall is able to help audiences be more comfortable with discomfort, something which is sorely needed in the present era. It is amazing how the director is able to get us to connect a group which, truth be told, many may have intended to encounter superficially, if at all.
Kathryn Schulz once said that "our love of being right is best understood as our fear of being wrong." Marshall shows a world that the opposite is possible: when we have suspicions about what we believe, we can fear to be right and love being wrong.
Right Between Your Ears is a film that doesn't feel over when the credits roll, and Marshall has created a masterpiece that provides a platform for being able to broach controversial subjects in an inclusive way that doesn't compromise on rigor and transparency.
What does it mean to be wrong? This brilliant, brave and bold film revolves around a simple premise: a group of people thoroughly and absolutely convinced they had figured out when the world was going to end. Now, you might believe that this is obviously wrong (or you wouldn't be reading this review), but then halfway through, you are not so sure. You get a clear sense that this could easily have been you: the mind is a lot more complicated than it seems, and is always creating ways to defend you - not only from the outside world - but even from yourself.
Right Between Your Ears does an excellent job of combining scientific research with an excellent narrative, with smart and light editing and comfortable pacing to boot. In the end, all of the characters become impossible to objectively point the finger at, without implicating yourself. Even as the conspiracy theory tightens its cold grip, you feel for them all, because at some level, they want to understand better, and the closer they get to doing so, the more they seem to retreat to the comfort of their current understanding. It's hard to not see that in ourselves, and the film feels like watching a mirror sometimes.
By putting science in the service of story instead of the other way around, Marshall is able to help audiences be more comfortable with discomfort, something which is sorely needed in the present era. It is amazing how the director is able to get us to connect a group which, truth be told, many may have intended to encounter superficially, if at all.
Kathryn Schulz once said that "our love of being right is best understood as our fear of being wrong." Marshall shows a world that the opposite is possible: when we have suspicions about what we believe, we can fear to be right and love being wrong.
Right Between Your Ears is a film that doesn't feel over when the credits roll, and Marshall has created a masterpiece that provides a platform for being able to broach controversial subjects in an inclusive way that doesn't compromise on rigor and transparency.
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