VladCantSleep
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 6 months, 2013–2018
4:41 · 4.5M views · May 27, 2010
A hidden-camera social experiment in a park where three people try to steal a bike in the open: a white teenager, a black teenager and a young woman. It records how bystanders react to each.
Used in threads on bias and social engineering as a vivid example of how bystanders treat different thieves.
6 comments from Hacker News
> If you are white and male, for example, then you are seen as privileged because, statistically, white males have more wealth and power. No. If you are white and male, you've experienced more invisible privilege than you realize. [1] It's not about wealth, but it is about power -- power over others. Questions: * White man says that black woman stole something from him. What will happen? * White woman says that black man stole something from her. What will happen? * Black man says that white woman stole something from him. What will happen? * Black woman says that white man stole something from her. What will happen? What were your honest, visceral, reactions to each of these statements? Were they all completely symmetric? I can tell you I've been working on balancing my own feelings about various races, and I can't claim my own thoughts were completely unbiased. And I have been trying for years to purge the bias. There's an awesome video of three college-student-aged in a park. All three are obviously trying to steal a bike. They picked three actors and dressed them roughly equivalently. [2] Watch the video if you want to be shocked, or just read my summary if you can't be bothered: * White Actor: Everyone ignores him or asks him what he's doing. He gives dodgy answers, but people wish him "good luck" or leave the scene. Some say they might have called the police later (when confronted by the camera crew), but they clearly didn't seem to be concerned. * Black Actor: Within s
As always social engineering works far better than tech engineering, watch the guys try and help the girl steal a bike. this video
> if men are statistically more likely to be programmers, or black people are more likely to commit crimes (STATISTICALLY), I think you meant black people are more likely to be convicted of crime. The problems with crime 'statistics' is that on the surface, it all seems coldly scientific, yet they are generated and derived via very biased, very human, very unscientific processes - there is a lot of bad data. The ACLU did research that showed that there is no statistically significant difference in the possession of weed between white and black people, yet more black people are convicted[1] for possession. Here's a mind experiment: after watching this YouTube video[2], how skewed do you think the statistics for white female criminals (bike thieves) vs black criminals would be? 1. [LINK] 2. this video
Two relevant videos. This guy attempted to 'steal' his own bike in NYC: [LINK] There's also this one. First, a white guy. Then, a black guy. Finally, a woman: this video
I got the link to the video[1], and I misremembered: multiple people offer to help steal the bike on different occcasions, wtf! 1. this video