Attempted Robbery and Mirror Neurons
Here is an interesting video recorded by a Go Pro camera that documents an attempted robbery of a guy riding his bicycle in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Go ahead and watch it if you haven’t.
Chances are your mirror neurons (cells in your brain) will light up as this guy experiences fear and hence so will you! Mirror neurons make us feel what others are feeling when we see them go through an experience. You know when you see a friend cut their finger with a sharp object and you wince? That’s your mirror neurons!
I find mirror neurons fascinating.
When I teach my class to students, I frequently feel the power of mirror neurons in a really strange way.
I play a lot of emotional videos in my training class and my students mirror neurons work very well. They always mirror the emotions of the victims or suspects in the video beautifully. But I wasn’t prepared for how it would bounce and further affect me.
As the instructor, I have seen these videos hundreds of times so I don’t typically watch them. I am usually not listening to the content of the video or thinking about it either. I am often thinking about other things that I need to do and inevitably, through natural pauses in thinking and looking up at my students, I find my face starting to react to my students’ emotions.
I will start to feel a flush of an emotion overcome me. It’s surreal because I might be thinking I need to check-in for my flight tomorrow when I start feeling this rush of sadness. And I will catch the feelings of sadness and be perplexed. Why do I suddenly feel sad? And then I have to re-orient myself and ask what video are we playing right now? And 100% of the time the emotions I am starting to feel correlate to the video playing, but I am not watching it or listening to it. But I am glancing at my students and obviously my mirror neurons are firing from seeing them!
It’s the strangest thing.
It’s what I would call a mirror neuron bounce effect. A person in the video feels an emotion. They express it. My students watch it, and they feel what the person in the video feels. Then I see the faces of people watching the video, and I, too, react to them watching the video. It all happens involuntarily, too.
I never expected that mirror neurons would bounce like that, but I have experienced it enough to know they do, and when I see a really intense emotion expressed on a face, I will start to experience the strong flood of emotion myself regardless of the source!
So I wonder, does the movement of the facial muscles activate the mirror neurons? Or do the mirror neurons activate the facial muscles?
I’ve noticed this as well! I have a hard time watching violent or upsetting material and so generally look away from any screen where it is playing. But, when you’re in a room with people watching this sort of thing, you end up looking at their faces, which (as you say) very clearly indicate what is being shown on the screen. The most interesting bit to me, however, are the discrepancies in mirrored expressiveness between people. Do you find the intensity of this expressive correlates with certain personality traits?
me too. i cant watch videos where people are falling over & hurting themselves even if it’s “supposed to be funny”
Yes, Melissa I do. Absolutely. It’s very interesting, too.
I’ve noticed this as well! I have a hard time watching violent or upsetting material and so generally look away from any screen where it is playing. But, when you’re in a room with people watching this sort of thing, you end up looking at their faces, which (as you say) very clearly indicate what is being shown on the screen. The most interesting bit to me, however, are the discrepancies in mirrored expressiveness between people. Do you find the intensity of this expressive correlates with certain personality traits?
me too. i cant watch videos where people are falling over & hurting themselves even if it’s “supposed to be funny”
Yes, Melissa I do. Absolutely. It’s very interesting, too.
Mirror neurons sound like empathy to me. Is there a difference?
I would say they’re not the same thing– but mirror neurons are likely one of the major components of empathy. I don’t know whether it’s an absolutely necessary component, but I’d bet it plays a key role for most people. It’s easier to be empathetic when you understand, by feeling yourself, what someone else is feeling.
If you observe another person’s action the same brain cells are activating in your own brain as in theirs, your brain cells are ‘mirroring’ theirs. The same ‘mirror’ neurons
fire when you do an action or whether you observe another person perform the same action. This was first observed in (non-human) primates.
Empathy doesn’t rely on observation, so it is more than mirror neurons.
Mirror neurons sound like empathy to me. Is there a difference?
I would say they’re not the same thing– but mirror neurons are likely one of the major components of empathy. I don’t know whether it’s an absolutely necessary component, but I’d bet it plays a key role for most people. It’s easier to be empathetic when you understand, by feeling yourself, what someone else is feeling.
If you observe another person’s action the same brain cells are activating in your own brain as in theirs, your brain cells are ‘mirroring’ theirs. The same ‘mirror’ neurons
fire when you do an action or whether you observe another person perform the same action. This was first observed in (non-human) primates.
Empathy doesn’t rely on observation, so it is more than mirror neurons.
i didnt feel fear, just an alertness & immediacy about the moment. i wanted to give him the backpack to get it over with. but when the guy with the cam laughed, i laughed too & felt relieved that he laughed. that was also the longest 3 minutes ive watched on youtube. =P
I didn’t find that video long. I found it interesting and fascinating how people react. I was definitely nervous for sure watching it and apprehensive!
i didnt feel fear, just an alertness & immediacy about the moment. i wanted to give him the backpack to get it over with. but when the guy with the cam laughed, i laughed too & felt relieved that he laughed. that was also the longest 3 minutes ive watched on youtube. =P
I didn’t find that video long. I found it interesting and fascinating how people react. I was definitely nervous for sure watching it and apprehensive!
Eyes, do you think you’re an empath?
I’d be certain of it.
I was looking for a good resources on the topic of empath and upon quick look didn’t find one. I am not sure to be honest.
em·path
(chiefly in science fiction) a person with the paranormal ability to apprehend the mental or emotional state of another individual.
par·a·nor·mal
Denoting events or phenomena such as telekinesis or clairvoyance that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.
I don’t think your ability is beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding, but to a layman it probably is.
I’m a sci fi fan too Keith. haha.
Eyes, do you think you’re an empath?
I’d be certain of it.
I was looking for a good resources on the topic of empath and upon quick look didn’t find one. I am not sure to be honest.
em·path
(chiefly in science fiction) a person with the paranormal ability to apprehend the mental or emotional state of another individual.
par·a·nor·mal
Denoting events or phenomena such as telekinesis or clairvoyance that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.
I don’t think your ability is beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding, but to a layman it probably is.
I’m a sci fi fan too Keith. haha.
Interesting, I wonder if the “bounce” effect could amplify the misinterpretation of a scenario, or have other ill effects. Maybe there is a perfect amount of bounce to minimize the effects of faulty judgement, or empathy in a group.
Interesting, I wonder if the “bounce” effect could amplify the misinterpretation of a scenario, or have other ill effects. Maybe there is a perfect amount of bounce to minimize the effects of faulty judgement, or empathy in a group.
Boy, excellent comments on this article so far! That’s a great post when you can elicit such great comments from your readers.
I also wonder about Ian’s suggestion of the effect amplifying someone’s misinterpretation of a scenario– there would be a fascinating avenue for a research project, although it would probably be tough to conduct because you’d need to be able to have a person or group of people who would reliably misinterpret a situation for test subjects to mirror.
Melissa’s question about discrepancies and correlation with certain personality traits is also an excellent one.
And if you sort of combine those two questions, that leads to a lot of even more interesting questions and possibilities.
Boy, excellent comments on this article so far! That’s a great post when you can elicit such great comments from your readers.
I also wonder about Ian’s suggestion of the effect amplifying someone’s misinterpretation of a scenario– there would be a fascinating avenue for a research project, although it would probably be tough to conduct because you’d need to be able to have a person or group of people who would reliably misinterpret a situation for test subjects to mirror.
Melissa’s question about discrepancies and correlation with certain personality traits is also an excellent one.
And if you sort of combine those two questions, that leads to a lot of even more interesting questions and possibilities.
I first thought the video was fake. If a person shoves a gun into another person’s face asking for a backpack, the obvious thing to do is give the person the backpack. What the guy on the bike did is beyond stupid – it might have cost him his life with a different robber. I found myself dumbfounded that anyone would risk their life over a backpack, that the friends weren’t doing anything, that police did not show up, there weren’t a bunch of people watching (etc) so my first reaction was that this was a fake stunt. I was so stunned by the stupidity of what he was doing and everyone around that I missed the emotional cues that Eyes and many others picked up on.
Turns out I was completely wrong about the video being fake. Lots of comments from the guy on the bike (on other web sites) show that this was entirely real, exactly as depicted. The thief was supposedly caught a couple of days later based on the evidence from the GoPro camera.
So if you learn nothing else from this video, let it be this: Do NOT do what this guy did. He – and his friends – are all extremely lucky to be alive.
What I couldn’t believe was that the robber in this somehow didn’t even notice that the guy was wearing a CAMERA on his helmet! That’s tunnel vision for you– he was so focused on what he was doing and how he was doing it (after brandishing the gun, holding it down close to his leg so passersby would’t be able to see it and figure out what was going on etc.) that he was oblivious to a GoPro sticking out of someone’s helmet. He may have also been distracted by the narrow miss from the crossing vehicle right before he approached the guy on the bicycle, so maybe that also played a role in how the event unfolded.
It was pretty surreal how it all went down but that’s about as real as it gets. I remember when we got held up at work about 20 years ago– the dudes came bursting in through the door, one of them with a shotgun, and honestly my first thought was I had to laugh at these guys if they thought they were being serious because it seemed like such a stupid joke. I just couldn’t take them seriously they were so idiotic to me, but we basically did their job for them and I told everyone to go wait in the cooler to get them away from us as quick as possible before something went wrong. I don’t know how many people react the way they’d expect to in that kind of situation until they’ve been through it in real life. It just isn’t like you’d expect it to be, at least for me it wasn’t. I don’t think I’m a very good candidate for a robber.
I think he was an bungling thief. He tried to cut off the bike earlier but the guy kept on riding. Then he tried again. Then he left his motorbike, his getaway, and chased the guy on foot!. And he didn’t appear bothered by the head camera in any of this. Personally I would have kicked the guy and his motorbike onto the ground when he started pulling up on me the second time. Still a frightening experience, at least at first.
I first thought the video was fake. If a person shoves a gun into another person’s face asking for a backpack, the obvious thing to do is give the person the backpack. What the guy on the bike did is beyond stupid – it might have cost him his life with a different robber. I found myself dumbfounded that anyone would risk their life over a backpack, that the friends weren’t doing anything, that police did not show up, there weren’t a bunch of people watching (etc) so my first reaction was that this was a fake stunt. I was so stunned by the stupidity of what he was doing and everyone around that I missed the emotional cues that Eyes and many others picked up on.
Turns out I was completely wrong about the video being fake. Lots of comments from the guy on the bike (on other web sites) show that this was entirely real, exactly as depicted. The thief was supposedly caught a couple of days later based on the evidence from the GoPro camera.
So if you learn nothing else from this video, let it be this: Do NOT do what this guy did. He – and his friends – are all extremely lucky to be alive.
What I couldn’t believe was that the robber in this somehow didn’t even notice that the guy was wearing a CAMERA on his helmet! That’s tunnel vision for you– he was so focused on what he was doing and how he was doing it (after brandishing the gun, holding it down close to his leg so passersby would’t be able to see it and figure out what was going on etc.) that he was oblivious to a GoPro sticking out of someone’s helmet. He may have also been distracted by the narrow miss from the crossing vehicle right before he approached the guy on the bicycle, so maybe that also played a role in how the event unfolded.
It was pretty surreal how it all went down but that’s about as real as it gets. I remember when we got held up at work about 20 years ago– the dudes came bursting in through the door, one of them with a shotgun, and honestly my first thought was I had to laugh at these guys if they thought they were being serious because it seemed like such a stupid joke. I just couldn’t take them seriously they were so idiotic to me, but we basically did their job for them and I told everyone to go wait in the cooler to get them away from us as quick as possible before something went wrong. I don’t know how many people react the way they’d expect to in that kind of situation until they’ve been through it in real life. It just isn’t like you’d expect it to be, at least for me it wasn’t. I don’t think I’m a very good candidate for a robber.
I think he was an bungling thief. He tried to cut off the bike earlier but the guy kept on riding. Then he tried again. Then he left his motorbike and chased the guy on foot!. And he didn’t appear bothered by the head camera in any of this. Personally I would have kicked the guy and his motorbike onto the ground when he started pulling up on me the second time. Still a frightening experience, at least at first.
I started to feel anger because the man was risking his life instead of just handing over his backpack.