Average Iranians are very different than female Canadian university students used as psych experiment guinea pigs, but when it comes to studies on the mental effects of repression, IRI opposition may want to take note of how these Canadians subjects performed.
Turns out, if a repressive system is perceived as difficult to avoid the subject is more likely to defend that system. Here’s how this intriguing revelation is stated in a web publication of The Association of Psychological Sciences. “…female Canadian students read a paragraph about freedom of emigration from Canada. Half read that moving out of Canada would become easier and the other half read that this would become more difficult. Then all participants read another paragraph describing a gender inequality (“male university graduates in this country are more financially successful than their female counterparts”). The results showed that those who read the paragraph about emigration becoming more difficult were not only more likely to defend the emigration policy, but surprisingly also more likely to defend gender inequality, too.”
This seems pretty backwards, but we’re dealing with the human mind where what makes sense at first glance ain’t necessarily what happens. One possible application of this research for diaspora opposition filmmakers whose works may be seen on satellite channels is to incline to works that understate the regime’s power. More happy endings where lovers get away, and fewer tragedies where they are stoned.
