When The Lights Go Out.

You ever notice how the popular night scene is always lit up with bright lights? Go down any street with bars or clubs in any town and you will see amazing lights that beckon you to come in and enjoy yourself. So you park the car, get out with your friends and choose the place you want to go to enjoy the night. You look at the shiny lights as you walk to your destination and you have to admit that it's quite a brilliant scene, then you walk in. As soon as you enter you notice that the inside of the building is not nearly as brilliant as the outside; in fact the interior lighting can only be described as dim at best, but it seems like everyone is having a good time so you hurry off into the darkness to join them...

Many of us have had this experience, but I don't know if a lot of people ask themselves, "Why is it so dark in here?" Recently some researchers from the University of Toronto published findings on research they were conducting on darkness and the effect it has on behavior:

Darkness can conceal identity and encourage moral transgressions; it may also induce a psychological feeling of illusory anonymity that disinhibits dishonest and self-interested behavior regardless of actual anonymity.

This is self-explanatory; all of us are aware that most crimes are committed under the cover of darkness. But that deals with people who were pre-meditating their criminal acts, what about people who weren't? Can darkness really "encourage moral transgressions?" Let's go away from the word "darkness" for a while, instead lets focus on the idea of being unseen. Ask yourself this: "If I were invisible for one day, what would I do?" Did your answer include any devious behavior? Why is it that being unseen, or thinking we are unseen, makes us want to do things we normally would not do?

In the Toronto study they conducted three experiments to see if darkness can truly effect behavior:

Three experiments tested whether darkness can license dishonesty and self-interested behaviors. Experiment 1 manipulated environmental dimness and examined whether participants would cheat to earn more undeserved money. Experiment 2 examined the extent to which people would act selfishly in a dictator game while wearing sunglasses versus clear glasses. Finally, Experiment 3 examined whether subjective perceptions of anonymity mediated the licensing effect of wearing sunglasses on selfish acts.

"Dr. Vanessa Bohns, who conducted the study said, 'Across all three experiments, darkness had no bearing on actual anonymity, yet it still increased morally questionable behaviours.'" Imagine that, even when there was no true concealment people were still led towards deviance.

In the opening paragraph I described a typical night scene; light outside, dark inside. I wonder what would happen if the owner decided to turn on the lights in the entire facility? People would stop dancing, they'd begin checking their clothes and hair, perhaps they would fix their posture, and I think you would find that most people's confidence would diminish at an astounding rate. Why? Because the darkness, like alcohol, brings confidence to do things you wouldn't normally do if your actions could be seen clearly. That's why those managers have the place dimly lit, why else would they? It doesn't make sense to have the lights turned down in strip clubs; people come to see something, but if the lights are shining bright maybe they won't come at all. In a bar where drinks are spilled all the time, it might be helpful to have a lot of light so you can see where you're going... but then maybe people wouldn't drink as much. And what about the huge sign's you see as you travel between cities? You know what I am talking about, the ones that flash the word "ADULT" in bright fluorescent colors. Why is it that they seem to want to attract so much business with their large sign, but when you pull up to the building you cannot see what's inside? You cannot window shop at such places, because they know that the only possible way to get people to come in is to offer them concealment.

In the gospel of John a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to see Jesus while it was dark outside. Coming to see Jesus was for him a socially deviant action, for many of his contemporaries were at odds with Jesus, and he would have been ostracized if they saw him. He came asking Jesus questions and after a seemingly lengthy answer, Jesus ends the discourse by saying,

And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.
- John 3:19-21

Here Jesus speaks about spiritual darkness, but the effects are the same. Darkness presents the opportunity to fulfill our secret desires. It exposes the inward person, and for most of us it provides a scene that makes us feel ashamed. Jesus said that the light has come in this world, he was speaking of himself (John 1:4-5). So we can step into the light, but this has its consequence. Stepping into the light means admitting that you were a lover of darkness and you are choosing to no longer walk in the darkness. It means that you choose to walk in the light of God where there are no secrets, only love, acceptance, and vulnerability.

The other option is to stay in the darkness and act as if everything is okay. But on the inside we all know that everything is not okay...

My Opinion,

God's Court Jester