Each of us has been outside at night, in the darkness of a new moon, and craned our heads backward to look upward.\u00a0 Overhead, a dark blue blanket flecked with stars, cut in half by a faint and milky haze.\u00a0 The lack of summer humidity meant the sky revealed its depths as if it were as shallow as a clear mountain lake. The shimmer of a bright star caught your eye and you focused on it. You were looking at the faintly colored red dot on Orion\u2019s shoulder\u2014a star oddly named \u201cBetelgeuse.\u201d\u00a0 While you looked, something truly amazing happened, past and present.\u00a0 Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, a vast sea of hydrogen and helium atoms on the patch of Betelgeuse closest to you experienced a shock of energy from the star\u2019s nuclear reactions. \u00a0Each electron in each atom jumped away from its nucleus and fell back inward as the energy in the electron dissipated.\u00a0 Trillions and trillions of electrons jumping and falling.\u00a0 As each fell it shot a single bullet into the void of space.\u00a0 One photon for each falling electron. Without any need to accelerate, they instantly left their atomic shells going the speed of light.\u00a0 For the next few hundred years they would keep that frantic pace. \u00a0Multiplied by all the atoms in that patch of ocean, it\u2019s an unfathomable arsenal of bullets flying directly at you, at the place you stood when you looked up.<\/p>\n
And think about this: they were aimed for that spot and for that moment in time, long before you ever stopped to look up.\u00a0 You were destined to make each other\u2019s acquaintance. They end their journey, and their well-travelled lives, falling into the well of your eye. \u00a0As they arrived that night, perhaps your jaw fell just a little bit.\u00a0 Out there in the dark, you felt something.\u00a0 What was it?\u00a0 A sense of infinity?\u00a0 Smallness?\u00a0 Wonder?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll start with an admission before you read further.\u00a0 This month\u2019s post isn\u2019t much about the law or the practice of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s purely about the brain and how susceptible it is to things we aren\u2019t aware of.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve read this blog more than a half dozen times, that susceptibility is a consistent theme here.\u00a0 So, while this post may not be inside of the ivy at Wrigley, I\u2019m not too far outside of it either.<\/p>\n
The study I\u2019m writing about this month tests a simple question:\u00a0 Does the color and movement of ambient light affect how someone feels?\u00a0 Is that too bland?\u00a0 Too overdone?\u00a0 Well, more particularly, the question of the study is whether ambient light color and motion experienced during one\u2019s interaction with a computer would cause its user to ascribe human characteristics and feelings to that computer.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 If your first reaction to that was, \u201cOh no.\u00a0 \u2018They\u2019 are prepping us for a future filled with artificially intelligent robot-people!\u201d then you might not be alone.\u00a0 More on that one later.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll simplify the set-up for the study a little bit.\u00a0 The researchers had various test groups play three different games on a computer.\u00a0 The subjects looked at a decently sized stand-up monitor and on the bottom of the monitor, at the periphery of the subject\u2019s attention, the researchers placed a 19-inch-long strip of 144 LED lights that would display the ambient lights driving the study.\u00a0 Oversimplifying a bit again, the lights would display pre-selected colors and patterns while the subjects interacted with the computer\u2019s games.\u00a0 The games were competitive, forcing the subject to play against the computer, or cooperative, testing whether subjects would engage in a bit of give-or-take with the computer.\u00a0 During the games, some subjects would receive red-colored displays while others received green-colored displays.\u00a0 Subjects were given a battery of survey questions before the computer interactions and after.\u00a0 Principally, the questions measured the subject\u2019s perception of their gaming performance, their perception of the stress of the game\u2019s workload and, most importantly for the study, their perception of the computer itself.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n First, looking at the effects of animating the lights, researchers found that \u201c[t]he participants in the with-light-animation condition liked playing the game significantly more than those in the without-light-animation condition.\u201d[3]<\/a> When the lights were green and pulsed slowly on-and-off, test subjects felt more willing to work with the computer (\u201capproach-like behavior\u201d) and were more likely to have a positive impression of the computer itself.[4]<\/a> \u00a0The researchers also measured whether test subject would ascribe a bit of humanity to the computer (anthropomorphize) during these interactions.\u00a0 Mind you, these subjects weren\u2019t gaming with humanoid robot partners here.\u00a0 The test subjects were sitting in front of a monitor with an LED light strip attached. The question of whether someone would anthropomorphize such a non-human object seems like a rather large stretch.\u00a0 And yet, here we are.\u00a0 Say the researchers, \u201cOur results reveal the interesting phenomenon that people anthropomorphize devices more when they include light animations.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 You read that correctly.\u00a0 Humanization of a device seems to be just that simple.\u00a0 Additionally, in the competition and cooperation games, subjects who had positive impressions of their computers were \u201c\u2026more willing to accept unfair offers\u2026and were more cooperative\u2026\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t bode well for us, does it.<\/p>\n If you read this and you\u2019re wondering if scientists are pre-testing our responses to our inevitable robot overlords, well, you too might just be inside the ballpark and not loitering on the sidewalks outside.\u00a0 Speaking of the fact that subjects anthropomorphized this monitor and its light strip, the researchers said, \u201c[Anthropomorphizing a computer] would not only improve the user experience with such devices but also facilitate in achieving [a computer\u2019s] more harmonious interactions with people.<\/em>\u201d[7]<\/a> (Emphasis added.)\u00a0 Now, I speak only for myself here.\u00a0 When I read this and the rest of the results, I couldn\u2019t help but say to myself, \u201cDon\u2019t be sucked in by the pretty lights, Grant!\u00a0 That\u2019s how they\u2019ll get you!\u201d\u00a0 Please forgive me for this wee bit of transparent paranoia.\u00a0 I promise that my list of approved conspiracy theories is quite short.<\/p>\n So here we are as lawyers and professors, reminded again just how susceptible our brains are to the slightest stimuli.\u00a0 Whether we\u2019re staring at the sky, ushered into wonder or reverence by a flood of ancient photons, or ascribing humanity to a computer pulsing out a soothing green glow.\u00a0 We have seen the light, and we won\u2019t be unchanged.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Sichao Song & Seiji Yamada, Ambient Lights Influence Perception and Decision-Making<\/em>, 9 Frontiers in Psychology, no 2685, 2019, 1-10. DOI:10.3389\/fpsyg.2018.02685<\/a><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> See Id. <\/em>at 3-7 for a more thorough explanation of the experiments and methods.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Id. <\/em>at 5.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Id. <\/em>at 8.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Id. <\/em>at 6.<\/p>\n