Hollaback: Junk Science

By now you've probably seen the viral Hollaback video. Rob Bliss Creative hired an attractive female actress to walk around New York City for ten hours, secretly filming her. What was found was disturbing, if not sadly expected. In the short two minute video, the woman was harassed with catcalls and whistles a staggering hundred times and counting. 

It's unsettling, upsetting, and exposes just how inconsiderate men can be towards women, even in public. Basically, it's everything a viral video should be, right down to the soundtrack.

There's just one problem. The social experiment isn't just flawed, it technically isn't even an experiment.

I've resisted writing about the Hollaback video for two reasons. One, the science behind true experiments, social or otherwise, is dry. That's why viral videos masquerade behind junk science. No one wants to read about hypotheses and scientific methodology, and video bloggers can't take the time to scrap their experiments when confounding variables arise. 

You're yawning now, and that's why science doesn't sell.

But more importantly, I simply didn't want to criticize a video that has led to even more online harassment well beyond a ten hour walk around New York City. If being catcalled isn't inconsiderate enough, death threats are surely terrifying.

Unfortunately, with an internet full of fly-by-night "social studies," it's hard to criticize anything that attempts to expose harassment without sounding like harassment itself. Zeynep Tufekci of medium.com did a fine job of explaining the flaws in Rob Bliss's experiment without downplaying the harassment that exists. 

However good intentioned, these experiments are social irresponsible, painfully evident in the backlash the video and its' actress have received. Social experiments are important, and one on street harassment can have merit. But it's important, especially when dealing with sensitive issues and your subjects' safety, to be vigilant in how these experiments are performed. And to be prepared to prove that the science behind your experiment holds water.

But the sensitivity targeted by these experiments is the problem. Science and conscience don't mix. Experiments like Hollaback attempt to instill sympathy and outrage, but there is no place for passion in scientific experiments. Science is blind and sometimes exposes ugly truths about humanity, and not always where it's hypothesized. 

Perhaps more scientifically interesting than the 100+ catcalls is the underlying reason Rob Bliss chose to spend more than 50% of the experiment in predominantly African American neighborhoods. Rob Bliss went into his own experiment to prove a prejudice against women, only to expose his own prejudices.