Rashomon effect
The Rashomon effect occurs when an event is given contradictory interpretations by the individuals involved. The effect is named after Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, in which a murder is described in four contradictory ways by four witnesses.[1] The term addresses the motives, mechanism and occurrences of the reporting on the circumstance and addresses contested interpretations of events, the existence of disagreements regarding the evidence of events and subjectivity versus objectivity in human perception, memory and reporting.
The Rashomon effect has been defined in a modern academic context by Robert Anderson, professor of communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, as "the naming of an epistemological framework—or ways of thinking, knowing, and remembering—required for understanding complex and ambiguous situations".[2] The term led Anderson to comment
[T]he Rashomon effect is not only about differences in perspective. It occurs particularly where such differences arise in combination with the absence of evidence to elevate or disqualify any version of the truth, plus the social pressure for closure on the question.[2]
In 2015 testimony, Anderson said
My own understanding of its origins arises much earlier, upon hearing my respected teacher, Nur Yalman [in 2016, an emeritus professor at Harvard University], say to us in a class in early 1966 at the University of Chicago that 'anthropology's main problem is to deal with the Rashomon effect'. Unlike some graduate students in that room in Chicago, I had seen the film [Rashomon] in 1961 or 1962, so this remark crystalized something… in my memory… I suspect the Rashomon effect has shown up in many historic intellectual undertakings that deal with the contested interpretation of events or with disagreements and evidence for them, or with subjectivity/objectivity, memory and perception. A pertinent example is the long poem called The Ring and the Book by Robert Browning… published in 1868–9…[3]
The history of the term and its permutations in cinema, literature, legal studies, psychology, sociology and history is the subject of a 2015 multi-author volume edited by Blair Davis (DePaul University), Anderson and Jan Walls (Simon Fraser University).[4]
Valerie Alia termed the same effect "The Rashomon Principle" and has used this variant extensively since the late 1970s, first publishing it in an essay on the politics of journalism in 1982.[citation needed] She developed the term in a 1997 essay "The Rashomon Principle: The Journalist as Ethnographer" and in her 2004 book, Media Ethics and Social Change.[5][6]
A useful demonstration of this principle in scientific understanding can be found in Karl G. Heider's 1988 journal article on ethnography.[7] Heider used the term to refer to the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it.
See also
References
- ^ Davenport, Christian (2010). "Rashomon Effect, Observation, and Data Generation". Media Bias, Perspective, and State Repression: The Black Panther Party. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 52–73, esp. 55. ISBN 9780521759700.
- ^ a b Anderson, Robert (2016). "The Rashomon Effect and Communication". Canadian Journal of Communication (41(2)). Vancouver Canada: 250–265. ISSN 0705-3657.
- ^ Anderson, Robert (2015). "What is the Rashomon Effect? [Ch. 7]". Rashomon Effects: Kurosawa, Rashomon and Their Legacies. Routledge Advances in Film Studies. Abingdon, ENG: Routledge. pp. 66–85, esp. 68f. ISBN 1138827096. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|editors=ignored (|editor=suggested) (help) The citation is taken from the hardback edition, ISBN as appearing. The link is to the e-book edition, ISBN 131757463X. For easier access to this chapter and information, see the corresponding hardback edition at Amazon.com. - ^ Rashomon Effects: Kurosawa, Rashomon and Their Legacies. Routledge Advances in Film Studies. Abingdon, ENG: Routledge. 2015. ISBN 1138827096. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|editors=ignored (|editor=suggested) (help) See also the citation of individual chapters. - ^ Alia, Valerie (1997). "The Rashomon Principle: The Journalist as Ethnographer". Deadlines and Diversity: Journalism Ethics in a Changing World. Halifax, CAN: Fernwood. ISBN 9781895686548.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|editors=ignored (|editor=suggested) (help) - ^ Alia, Valerie (2004). Media Ethics and Social Change. Edinburgh, UK and New York City: Edinburgh University Press/Routledge US; Routledge US. ISBN 9780415971997.
- ^ Heider, Karl G. (March 1988). "The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree" (PDF). American Anthropologist. 90 (1): 73–81. doi:10.1525/aa.1988.90.1.02a00050.