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Stupid sexy raft

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Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨fossilesque@mander.xyz⁩ to ⁨science_memes@mander.xyz⁩

https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/dfe994da-a8e7-4a5b-9172-d26c15475da8.jpeg

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  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    In 1973, Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genovés set out to test a hypothesis. He had been struck by the connection between violence and sexuality in monkeys. “Most conflicts,” he noted, “are about sexual access to ovulating females.”

    But would this apply to humans, too? To find out, Genovés asked a British boat builder to make a 12x7 metre raft called the Acali on which he planned to sail with 10 sexually attractive young people across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Mexico.

    To spur conflict onboard, Genovés minimised opportunities for privacy.

    The boat would have no engines and would sail towards the Caribbean, just in time for hurricane season. Genovés knew that the Acali was sailing into danger but thought science justified the risk. “I believe that in a dangerous situation people will act on their instincts and I will be able to study them.”

    He put women in charge, in part to reflect what he thought was growing gender equality. The raft was captained by Maria Björnstam and Edna Reves was ship doctor; men were given menial tasks. “I wonder if having women in power will lead to less violence or more,” mused Genovés. “Maybe men will become more frustrated when women are in charge, and try to take over power.”

    Not that Genovés’ raft was an antidote to the patriarchy. With a Caribbean hurricane brewing, Maria, the experienced ship’s captain, recommended they pull into a port to sit out the storm. Genovés, fearing the ruin of his experiment if they did so, mutinied and took control of the raft.

    But Genovés was symbolically castrated later, on the Atlantic crossing. A huge container ship bore down on the little raft and he panicked. Only Maria kept a cool head and organised flares to ward off the looming ship. After that, the guinea pigs turned on the scientist: Maria became captain again.

    Overthrown, Genovés retreated below deck and collapsed into depression, made worse by news on the radio that his university wanted to be dissociated from the scandalous Sex Raft headlines. While lying there he started to cry for the first time since childhood and had an existential epiphany, writing: “Only one has shown any kind of aggression and that is me, a man trying to control everyone else, including himself.”

    wild

    Was the Peace Project a failure? Fé argues it was a great success, even though the anthropologist couldn’t see it: “He was so focused on the violence and conflict, but he had it right in his hands. We started out as them and us and we became us.”

    For Lindeen, it’s poignant that Fé praises the experiment. “If only [Genovés] had listened to why people were on the raft – Mary escaping an abusive husband, the racism Fé had suffered – he would have learned about the consequences of violence and how sometimes we can overcome it by overcoming our differences.”

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    • Evotech@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      But was there much fucking?

      Doesn’t sound like it.

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      • YashaB@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        asking the important questions!

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      • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I remember hearing there were one or two hookups, all supported by the rest of the group giving them as much privacy as possible. Yeah, turns out that if you remove societal pressures and leave people alone, they tend to be pretty chill.

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  • SethTaylor@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I seem to remember a similar experiment called Big Brother?

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    • BanMe@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      for real, today Sex Raft would have 55 seasons and 3 spinoffs.

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      • Zoomboingding@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        There’s literally a 1 season series called Survive The Raft in 2023 as an homage to the original experiment.

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  • lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acali

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  • Adderbox76@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It was the seventies.

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  • robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    polycules are weird

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    • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Poly people deserve marriage equality

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  • HexesofVexes@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    So, hear me out here, there is a huge reproduction crisis out there. In theory, you could try to replicate this study without the researcher being an asshole and see if it still works out and this would be a valuable line of research that could technically get funded.

    I’m going to need a decent ship, some volunteers, and a 101 day supply of daiquiris.

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    • hactar42@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I bet you could sell it as a reality TV show

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    • BrazenSigilos@ttrpg.network ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Turns out humans are one of those animals that don’t breed well in captivity, and alot of us are starting to realize we’re captives.

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      • HexesofVexes@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Scientific reproduction, not sexual reproduction XD

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    • whoisearth@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      There is no reproduction crisis. There may be challenges where you live, but, well…

      Waves hand in general direction of Africa

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      • buttnugget@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Honestly, Africans are superior to all others.

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      • HexesofVexes@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Scientific reproduction, as in reproduction of a study XD

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  • QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    this “experiment” is SO much funnier than this post implies, the idea of the experiment is that in nature if you put males and females together they will either turn to 100% hate or 100% lust.

    When the people were just having fun on the boat away from society he was upset that they weren’t fucking he would act like an asshole to them.

    When they inevitably got sick of his ass and yelled at him he wrote in his notes something along the lines of “I think my experiment is leaning twords pure rage side”

    there’s so much more to it that I’m forgetting but this video is 100% a watch youtu.be/BHXw3E1VqK4

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  • Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If you televised that it would get 23 seasons on Hulu.

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    • FatVegan@leminal.space ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Something tells me this already has 5 seasons and 8 spin offs on TLC

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      • Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Can’t wait for MILF Sex Raft

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  • Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If you think this is wild, check out: Stanford prison experiment - Wikipedia share.google/tnvESUZQoYk8JH46l

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    • Humana@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      After watching this, and also studying the Stanford experiment. It seems to me the source of much human conflict isn’t sex like the sociologist hypothesized, but class structures. But he seemed to refuse to even entrain that possibility.

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    • syaochan@feddit.it ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Direct link to Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

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  • Cruxifux@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The dollop did an episode on this and it’s absolutely bonkers.

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    • Rune_Walsh@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Great episode. Absolutely bonkers and I still sing “Why do we fight? Why do we fight?” when my kid wants to argue with me. It’s a great diffuser.

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      • Cruxifux@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Nice to see fellow doll heads

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    • Solventbubbles@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Came here to say this! Highly recommend a listen.

      The Dollop Episode 659 - The Love Raft

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      • Cruxifux@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Nice to see fellow doll heads

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  • thenextguy@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Sounds like a bit of Mark Twain…

    Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansaw; a Bhuddist from China; a Brahmin from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh—not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.

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  • MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    There’s an HBO Max original reality series

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  • Gork@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    By his actions to stir up drama, I can probably say with confidence that he did not get laid on that journey.

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  • Pacrat173@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Sounds like a fever dream but it’s true

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  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They had the sex but forgot to write it down, so they were jist screwing around.

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    • Dagnet@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      One of the rare cases where fucking around did not lead to finding out

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  • FaceDeer@fedia.io ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    "If we knew what we were doing it wouldn't be an experiment, would it?"

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  • xxce2AAb@feddit.dk ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It did however produce four awkwardly conceived children of rather mixed heritage and inconsistent religious convictions.

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  • HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I tgink I heard of that. Didn’t the “scientist” just like self isolate, angry that they didn’t fight eachother, while the other passengers became lifelong friends and had a great time?

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    • ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It goes to show that humans are actually good to each other on an individual level or in small groups.

      It’s when we place ourselves in massive groups and communities of thousands or millions or billions of people that we start to act terribly to other humans.

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      • Quill7513@slrpnk.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        “tribalism” being the word we use to label when a civilization engages in pointless violence when it’s tribes that avoid this bullshit naturally by excluding the waste of time members of society who try to break society is so frustrating to me

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    • its_kim_love@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It went beyond that. In an attempt to ferment discontent in the group he started reading their reports out loud. Airing all their dirty laundry. Instead of getting them mad at each other he basically forced them to settle all their issues and form together, closer than ever. After that didn’t work he started trying to usurp authority from the captain that he selected because he thought as a woman she would crumble under the pressure of command. His greatest accomplishment as the new captain was damaging a fuel line and failing to fix it by swimming in the fuel and water.

      If I remember correctly they had to rescue him and distract him while they fixed it themselves and after that he basically sulked in the corner of the raft. Only getting the balls to try something near the end of the experiment, trying to Shanghai the raft and expand the experiment to try and force his theories into reality. After they finally got back the subjects would get together every few years to relive the good old days without him.

      It’s ironic, by trying to get them to hate each other he accidentally became something for all of them to rally against.

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      • SlurpingPus@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Some kinda ‘Aguirre, the Wrath of God’ shit.

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      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        That’s awesome. Like he was really hoping for some dismal and dark exposé on “savage human nature” a la “Lord of the Flies”, and at every turn, proven wrong by people who were happy to just get along and cooperate for mutual benefit…

        … Which should come as a complete shock, social species that we are! /s

        I think these desperately dark tales of people turning on each other in sociological contexts is another propaganda tool to put this idea in our heads that without “qualified leaders” we’d all just be grunting and beating each other over the head with rocks.

        Nah, someone to gain has to motivate us to fight each other. What if we just said “lol, anyway” and kept getting along on the raft?

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      • Admetus@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It’s ironic, by trying to get them to hate each other he accidentally became something for all of them to rally against.

        Like reverse Stockholm syndrome.

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      • laserwash2000@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        “Hey guys, I think this is the Bad Place!”

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      • tacosanonymous@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I mostly agree with the other honey about “foment.”

        I just want to add that all of the social experiments I’ve ever seen, participates in, and/or ran nothing brings people together like a common enemy.

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      • DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Lelouche or Code Geasse’s storyboard

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      • TheFogan@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        So… did this scientists great grandchildren invent reality TV?

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      • napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        After they finally got back the subjects would get together every few years to relive the good old days without him.

        The linked article in the post claims that the crew never met again until the person filming the documentary tracked some of them down.

        They had not met since the Peace Project docked in Mexico 43 years earlier, so the reunion was poignant.

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      • hakase@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It’s ironic, by trying to get them to hate each other he accidentally became something for all of them to rally against.

        Major Payne already taught us that this works:

        “They hate you!”

        “Good. It’ll draw them close together, make 'em a team.”

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    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Sounds like projection from the incel scientists.

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      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        the perverted ones yea, scientists usually dont have trouble finding SOs. i remember reading a book about prion research and one of them has a “unusual predilection towards young boys, in SE asia” where he was studying kuru, although the book dint come out in say it, they were implying he was a pedo.

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      • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Scientist

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    • man_wtfhappenedtoyou@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That scientist sounds like a real bitch.

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    • Sunforged@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I was foggy on the details but yeah that sounds familiar.

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