Wen 丨 Qingxin Junyue
Recently, the film "Manslaughter 2", directed by Dai Mo, supervised by Chen Sicheng, and starring Xiao Yang, Ren Dahua and Wen Yongshan, was released as scheduled.
The main theme and core of "Manslaughter 2" still continue the elements of family affection and self, good and evil, human nature and class in "Manslaughter 1", but on this basis, "Manslaughter 2" also adds social issues that have attracted much attention such as poverty, disease, medical insurance, and doctor-patient relationship to enrich the content of the plot.
I have to say that the performance of Xiao Yang (as Lin Zhilang) in the film is really commendable, and his superb acting skills make me think that he is a good actor who has been delayed by singing, and as for the performances of Ren Dahua and Wen Yongshan, they are also remarkable.
However, what I want to discuss with you today is not the acting skills of the actors, or the filming methods of the film, etc., but I want to discuss with you from a psychological point of view why Lin Zhilang, as a robber, has been supported by hostages, journalists, police and onlookers.
He is a robber, and he is also a father who has gone into despair for love
Lin Zhilang is an ordinary person living at the bottom of society, running hard with his wife for life every day, although he is not rich, but the life of a family of three is still warm and happy.
Until the 8-year-old son Xiao Worm suddenly fainted and was hospitalized, the doctor told Lin Zhilang that if they wanted to save their son's life, they could only surgically transplant their heart, but how could the operation fee of up to 2 million yuan be affordable by this ordinary family.
If the money did not make Lin Rilang despair, then what happened next completely forced Lin Rilang to a dead end.
After he collected the cost of the operation by selling the house, borrowing money, and borrowing usurious loans, he was told that the heart that originally belonged to his son was snatched by others, and he did not know who the other party was, but he understood that the other party must be a powerful person.
As a father, he could not accept that he had watched his son die, and he was desperate to plan a kidnapping case, using hostages in the emergency room as a chip in exchange for the possibility of the police helping to retrieve the heart.
He has no intention of hurting others, he just wants to get that heart back, even if there is little hope, he has to try.
However, reality will never develop as we expected, the heart is found, but it has been moved into the body of the mayor's son, and in the end, he, with his own heart, returns his son's life.
This is the plot synopsis of the film "Manslaughter 2", a father who has gone to the end of the road for love, a father who is powerless to resist reality, and it is also such an image that allows him to get the support and help of everyone except the black hand behind the scenes.
From a psychological point of view, why did Lin Zhilang, who was a robber, get the support of the hostages and the crowd?
In the process of confrontation with the police, Lin Richang first got the help of well-known journalist Li Anqi (Chen Yucheng), let the public know the reasons behind his behavior through live broadcasting, and then won the support and help of hostages and the public.
So why did Lin Zhilang, who was a robber, get the support of the hostages and the crowd?
Some people may say that because they sympathize with his experience, they will support him.
This is true, after all, sympathy for the weak is human nature, but it is not comprehensive enough to explain the support or help behavior of the hostage Dr. Damma and others with compassion alone.
In other words, if you are kidnapped by a man, you know that the bandit is a poor man, you may sympathize with him, but you may not help him.
Similarly, Lin Zhilang's suffering deserves sympathy, but the reason why the hostages he took with a gun helped him was not just out of compassion.
There is a lot of research in social psychology on why people have helpful behaviors, and its conclusions probably include these aspects:
Get rewarded and avoid penalties
Evolutionary Psychology
Theories of comparative and evaluative help behavior
True altruism
These four big aspects basically contain all the reasons that drive us to help others, and I have extracted several typical small reasons from these four aspects to explain the motivation of Damma, journalists, and others to help Lin Zhilang.
1. Empathy
What is empathy?
Empathy, similar to what we often call sympathy or compassion for others, is psychologically interpreted as empathy when we feel connected to someone. Empathetic connection does not necessarily mean a relationship with someone, similar experiences, encounters or understanding of each other's pain also produce empathy.
Empathy drives us to help others for their own good.
This is one of the reasons why the onlookers outside the emergency room, after learning about Lin Zhilang's suffering and suffering, will support him and oppose the violent suppression of him by the police.
2. Get rewarded
The so-called return here does not simply refer to material or other visible things, but more to two aspects: one is the improvement of self-worth, and the other is the fear of suffering the same injustice.
First, helping behavior has a positive effect on a sense of self-worth. When people help others, they will get spiritual pleasure and satisfaction, and the act of helping will deepen their self-recognition and value, which is why some people will be in a good mood when they do good things, or they will do more good things.
Second, I worry that I will suffer the same injustice. Psychology believes that we are more willing to help people who are similar to us because our subconscious tells us that we are more likely to encounter the same difficulties as people like us.
Although the word "reward" does not seem to sound good, human genes determine our choice to seek advantage and avoid harm, and it is also genes that feel that human nature must contain egoism, which is unavoidable.
3. Feelings of guilt
Feelings of guilt can also drive helpful behaviors.
In the film, Dr. Dama has a sense of guilt for not being able to stop the dean from taking away the heart needed by the worm, although he is not the perpetrator of the crime, but his inability to stop and compromise still makes him have a deep sense of guilt, and it is this sense of guilt that makes him suddenly stabbed by the dean during Lin Rilang's hijacking of the hospital, he did not help the dean subdue Lin Rilang, but helped Lin Rilang to overcome the danger.
In the book "Social Psychology", it is mentioned that feelings of guilt can increase helping behaviors, and when people have the opportunity to eliminate guilt and reduce bad feelings, people will do what they can, and Dr. Dama is like this.
4. Determine responsibilities
Psychologists believe that other bystanders present inhibit an individual's helpful behavior, especially when the emergency situation is unclear or the bystander is a stranger who does not easily understand each other's behavior.
As a simple example, when a group of people face a stranger's cry for help, not everyone will give help, they subconsciously think that others will help, only when the stranger points to themselves for help, or when the scene is only themselves and each other, people give help faster.
This is to determine responsibility, in the group, people's sense of responsibility is suppressed, it is easy to have the idea of not caring about themselves, but once the other party names or points directly to themselves, people's sense of responsibility is awakened, and it is easier to produce helpful behaviors.
This is also a good explanation, when Lin Zhilang was attacked by the dean, everyone around him was stunned, including Dr. Dama, but when Lin Zhilang called out Dr. Dama's name, Dama quickly stepped forward to help.
The above are some superficial explanations of the behaviors and reactions of individuals in the film based on psychological perspectives, aiming to understand the characteristics and motivations of people's psychology and behavior with everyone, and hope that these analyses can help us live and act with higher consciousness and compassion.
Qingxin Junyue, an emotional observer, ta said book critic, film critic. Warm you, me with words.