In ‘The Age of Stupid’ (2009), these lines are uttered by the last man on Earth, in 2055. An archivist, he views footage from the early 21st century which arguably foretells the inevitable doom climate change is going to cause. Like numerous other documentaries, ‘The Age of Stupid’ too plays upon evoking fear in the viewer, depicting the planet destroyed, and at a point of no return.
Whether or not persuading people to take action by trying to scare them is effective, is psychologically debatable. ‘Defensive avoidance’ may arise, which entails avoidance or refusal to accept information put forth by the communicator if perceived as very upsetting. On the other hand, if suggestions about how to avert the doomed scenario are provided, and the viewer is convinced that hazardous consequences are indeed certain, then a strong appeal to fear may prove to be effective.
If the audience feels helpless to change the situation, the persuasion attempt fails. Piers Guy, a wind farm developer in England, is faced with outright rejection to his plans from the anti-wind campaign. Learning Piers’ story, one can actually feel powerless and think that no matter what their best intentions are, opposition will get the better of them. So while at present, those in favour of renewable sources of energy are in the minority, growth in their numbers may be thwarted by exposure to setbacks (such as Guy’s experience).
The documentary’s core message is that unless timely and appropriate actions are taken, we are going to reach a point of irreversible damage in the future. Psychologically though, people have the tendency to perceive threats as more relevant when they are concerned with the present rather than the future. This principle comes across in ‘The Age of Stupid’ with the businessman Jeh Wadia stating that his goal is to try and reduce the poverty in his country, India (with his low-budget airline, GoAir). Ultimately, it cannot be ignored that the primary focus of developing countries is to reach a certain level of development, and an offshoot of this striving is countless tonnes of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
The Extended Parallel Response Model (Witte, 1992) explains when fear appeals work and when they do not. In the absence of perceived susceptibility and severity on part of the viewer, a no response action will follow. A fear control response (denial, mocking, anger etc.) occurs when there is no response or self efficacy, i.e. belief that recommended action would effectively avert danger or that one is capable of performing the recommended action. A danger control response (adoption of recommended action) results when perceived efficacy is higher than the perceived threat. However, ‘The Age of Stupid’ lacks recommended action altogether, so while there is perceived susceptibility and severity, whether or not it will lead to any positive behaviour on part of the viewer is questionable.
Essentially there are four parts to a successful fear appeal: a threat, a definite suggestion about how the viewer should behave, viewer opinion that the suggestion will be successful in addressing the threat, and viewer opinion that they are capable of following the suggested behaviour. The threat is well explained with the portrayal of a doomsday scenario, and present signs we are choosing to ignore such as receding Alpine glaciers and hurricane Katrina.
While the tale of two young children who are refugees of the Iraq war, and Lafeya the Nigerian student who longs to ape the western lifestyle move you, ‘The Age of Stupid’ leaves you with the decision to carry on with things as they are at present, or else wake up and choose to act. A sense of fear is created and the threat definitely perceived, but the absence of recommended action deems the documentary as an unsuccessful appeal to fear. Conversely, while there are documentaries out there that tell you what measures you ought to take, they have limited success as they overlook crucial individual differences that exist among people, such as varied degrees of willingness to change. As commonsense suggests, messages customised to meet the interests and requirements of individuals or specific target groups are considerably more effective than general, universal ones. So perhaps it is good that there is no sense of preaching in ‘The Age of Stupid’, which was made with the aim of worldwide viewing.
In sum, director Franny Armstrong has adopted the proverb ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.’ We may decide to be ‘not stupid’ as the documentary concludes, but the choice is up to us.
- Preeti Venkatram
Preeti is a third year student, at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi. She has a keen interest in environmental issues and is studying B.A. Psychology (Hons.). She is interested in Environmental Psychology, that being anything that deals with people’s impacts on the environment and how the environment in turn impacts them.
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