I’m upvoting this for basically one reason: after reading about the Top Gun Effect, I strongly updated towards “Hollywood movies can seriously mess up your mind”. Also this:
According to the US Navy, the box office success of Top Gun saw their recruitment rates balloon by a massive 500% in the year following the original movie’s release. This swell in numbers was due in no small part to the institution’s ability to tap into Top Gun fever when viewers of the movie were still at their most zealous and over-enthusiastic — as they walked out of the multiplex. The U.S. Navy set up recruiting stations outside of movie theaters when Top Gun was released, catching potential recruits as they were left the cinema hyped up by the movie’s dramatic climax. The strategy paid off, as the Navy soon had their highest number of applications in years.
If a single movie can make people do very serious life choices like signing up for the Navy, then we should probably be less confident in our ability to separate fiction from real-life.
(Also, I fully endorse the “avoid social networks like the plague” advice)
I’m upvoting this for basically one reason: after reading about the Top Gun Effect, I strongly updated towards “Hollywood movies can seriously mess up your mind”. Also this:
If a single movie can make people do very serious life choices like signing up for the Navy, then we should probably be less confident in our ability to separate fiction from real-life.
(Also, I fully endorse the “avoid social networks like the plague” advice)
Thank you for this strong argument! Quoted it in the post (with a ref to you).