LOST-Theories.com

Is the island a “Looking Glass” experiment?

— lostmusings

The season 3 finale of LOST is entitled “Through The Looking Glass” (as per Lostpedia) & (as per the sneak peak of tonight’s episode playing on ABC.com) - Juliet tells the Losties about an underwater signal station called the Looking Glass. The imagery of a looking glass or mirror is applicable enough (in general terms) to the LOST island, however, I also found an interesting reference to the Looking Glass in Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia:

The “Looking-Glass Self” is a sociological concept created by Charles Horton Cooley in 1902 & is comprised of 3 major components unique to humans. According to Lisa McIntyre’s The Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology, in the Looking-Glass Self a person views himself or herself through others’ perceptions in society & in turn gains identity. Identity, or self, is the result of the concept in which we learn to see ourselves as others do. The Looking-Glass Self begins at an early age & continues throughout the entirety of a person’s life as one will never stop modifying their self unless all social interactions are ceased.

The 3 Main Components of the Looking Glass Self are: 1.We imagine how we must appear to others. 2.We imagine the judgment of that appearance. 3.We develop our self through the judgments of others.

Apparently, the term was coined after extensive sociological testing in 1902, although more recent studies have been published. In 1976 Arthur L Beaman, Edward Diener, Soren Svanum (1979) performed an experiment on the Looking-Glass Self’s effect on children which included two conditions: Self-Awareness Manipulation & Individuation Manipulation.

From what I can gather, the basic experiment tested how children behaved (did they take more candy than they were instructed to?) when able to see their reflection in a mirror versus not / & if being individually identified vs remaining anonymous had any additional bearing on the results.

The results were (again, summarized) - out of the 363 children involved in the study, 70 children transgressed. Children who arrived in groups were more likely to transgress than those children who arrived alone. Boys transgressed more often than girls & they all transgressed more with mirror present than without (?!) The rate of transgression rose sharply with the age of the child.

This seems to be a possibility in terms of a possible “grand experiment” being conducted on the island. However, this still leaves us with WHO would be motivated enough, financially able, and morally / ethically able, to organize such a huge endeavor involving so many people??

No real answers here, just another reference being fleshed out a little. I’ll watch tonight & see if anything else seems to touch on this theme.

Welcome any comments or further insight.

Key episodes

#	Title	Aired	Central character	Theories
3.21	Greatest Hits	5-16-2007	Charlie	171

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