0:00:02 > 0:00:05Why do we do the things we do?
0:00:05 > 0:00:09What really makes us tick?
0:00:09 > 0:00:12How do our minds work?
0:00:13 > 0:00:16For centuries, these questions were largely left
0:00:16 > 0:00:19to philosophers and theologians.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Around 100 years ago, a new science
0:00:24 > 0:00:28began to shine a bright light on the inner workings of the mind.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32It was called experimental psychology.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36But doing scientific experiments
0:00:36 > 0:00:41posed some terrible ethical and moral dilemmas.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Do you think the research was justified? Would you have stopped him if you could?
0:00:44 > 0:00:48In this series, I will explore how psychologists have probed inside
0:00:48 > 0:00:55our minds, by way of experiments, which sometimes were frankly barbaric.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59- The experiment requires that we continue... - But he might be dead in there.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03Ever since I was a medical student, I have been fascinated by psychology,
0:01:03 > 0:01:08by its brutal history and by how far some researchers have been prepared
0:01:08 > 0:01:11to go in the search for answers.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16This time, I'm exploring how scientists have struggled
0:01:16 > 0:01:19to understand that seemingly irrational
0:01:19 > 0:01:25and yet deeply complex part of our minds, our emotions.
0:01:25 > 0:01:26Oh, dear.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30I'm playing my own small part in this quest.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33You're going to be experiencing some...
0:01:33 > 0:01:35moderate pain.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37How are you going to create the pain?
0:01:37 > 0:01:42Emotions are a huge part of our lives,
0:01:42 > 0:01:43but where do they come from?
0:01:43 > 0:01:48Can they be controlled?
0:01:48 > 0:01:52What are they there for?
0:01:52 > 0:01:55The answers they came up with were rich, complex
0:01:55 > 0:01:58and also profoundly uncomfortable.
0:01:58 > 0:02:04They have made me re-evaluate the role of emotions in my own life.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21It's a load-bearing belt, it's got to be done up securely, because your life may depend on it.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Safety helmet.
0:02:24 > 0:02:30'A problem faced by anyone who wants to study emotions is how to reproduce them.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34'Some emotions are harder to generate that others.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38'The one we're hoping to generate today is fear.'
0:02:38 > 0:02:43A pair of gloves - if you do get stuck, it'll stop you ripping your fingernails off.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47Do you ever get people who freak out when they're down there?
0:02:47 > 0:02:49- Frequently.- Right.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54'I have never done this, because I have always been aware that
0:02:54 > 0:02:58'when I go into small, dark spaces and I even think about doing so,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01'I become really, really uncomfortable.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03'I think I probably have a mild degree of claustrophobia,'
0:03:03 > 0:03:07but I've never challenged it, and that's kind of why I want to do it now,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09I want to see what it's going to actually be like.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11There's your cave.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13God, wow! That's small, isn't it?
0:03:13 > 0:03:16I was imagining something large.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20Ha...! OK.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22- First of all, there's just... - Ooh, that's nasty.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25'Now, one of the questions that scientists have grappled with
0:03:25 > 0:03:30'down the years is the relationship between reason and emotion.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33'I see myself as a rational creature
0:03:33 > 0:03:36'and yet I can be overwhelmed by my feelings,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39'as I think I'm about to find out.'
0:03:42 > 0:03:46There's a part of which is absolutely convinced I'm a rational creature -
0:03:46 > 0:03:49whatever emotion is engendered by the cave,
0:03:49 > 0:03:50I can control it.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53But I don't know until I do it.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58- Ooh, cor blimey, it's a long way down.- Going down.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02Aha! Yep, I'm fine.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04- Lay right down.- Yep.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07And get your legs in first, insert your legs.
0:04:07 > 0:04:08Oh, jeez.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12- Twist your hips. - Oh, God, this is horrible.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15- Yeah, just relax.- I realise...
0:04:15 > 0:04:17that actually it's not
0:04:17 > 0:04:20the dark and the small - it's the fear of getting stuck.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24HE SIGHS
0:04:24 > 0:04:28Right... Do people panic at this point?
0:04:28 > 0:04:33Well, the secret is, your mind and your body both have to be relaxed.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35Ah, Jesus.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38Ah, I can feel panic.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40Calm down, objectify it -
0:04:40 > 0:04:43out of a score of ten, how bad is it?
0:04:43 > 0:04:45Probably about nine at the moment.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48And could I...? No. It's really, really horrible.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52Ssh, ssh, ssh. Just stop, relax.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57- You come to what they call the grip self moment.- Right.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00When you've got to grip self, but you absolutely have to take control.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03All right?
0:05:04 > 0:05:11Just don't think about it, just keep breathing. Jesus Christ!
0:05:13 > 0:05:15My arm has got stuck,
0:05:15 > 0:05:20- I have my left arm underneath me. - Just adjust yourself a little bit - don't panic.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23Do I put my hands in front of me or what?
0:05:23 > 0:05:29- Yeah, whatever's most comfortable. Take your time.- But I'm not going to get stuck?- No.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Oh, jeez, that was horrible. Oh, God.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39Ah, it's unbelievable, man.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42My arm was trapped underneath me. I really thought...
0:05:42 > 0:05:45..I was going to be stuck.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Now, that was just...
0:05:48 > 0:05:51absolutely bloody awful. Oh, God!
0:05:55 > 0:05:58'It is clearly possible to produce a powerful emotion,
0:05:58 > 0:06:03'but to really understand them is a very different challenge.'
0:06:04 > 0:06:06HE SIGHS DEEPLY
0:06:12 > 0:06:15In the early days, psychology largely relied
0:06:15 > 0:06:18on speculative, unproven theories.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23Then, at the start of the 20th century, psychologists
0:06:23 > 0:06:29finally began to apply the scientific method to their discipline.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34One of the first to do so was young, ambitious JB Watson.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38The place, John Hopkins University, Baltimore.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44The question he was asking was deceptively simple -
0:06:44 > 0:06:48where do emotions come from?
0:06:48 > 0:06:51Are we born with them? Do we learn them?
0:06:51 > 0:06:56He already had a pet theory.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59Now, Watson believed that we're all born with three basic emotions -
0:06:59 > 0:07:03love, fear and rage - and that by mixing those together,
0:07:03 > 0:07:07you get all the emotional range that we enjoy as adults.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09But where he broke with other people was,
0:07:09 > 0:07:13he believed that every experience you had, all the emotions
0:07:13 > 0:07:18you felt later in life, were the product of some childhood experience,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22that what you experienced as a child would determine who you fell in love with,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25what you hated and what you got angry with.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Watson's own childhood was not happy.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34His father was drunk and often absent.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36Perhaps because of this, Watson was immensely driven
0:07:36 > 0:07:41and, in 1920, began planning something that would make him famous.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46Now, Watson was about to do what will turn out to be
0:07:46 > 0:07:50one of the most controversial and also important experiments
0:07:50 > 0:07:52of the early 20th century.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54He must have been...
0:07:54 > 0:07:59nervous, and so must the people taking part in this experiment.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05Watson wanted to study fear,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08and to do that, he was going to have
0:08:08 > 0:08:11to find someone and utterly terrify them.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13These are his props -
0:08:13 > 0:08:15a clown mask...
0:08:16 > 0:08:19..some newspaper and matches,
0:08:19 > 0:08:21a steel bar and a hammer.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27So, who was he going to terrify?
0:08:27 > 0:08:31Watson chose, as his subject, a nine-month-old infant
0:08:31 > 0:08:33he called Albert.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37Albert's mother was a wet nurse at the local hospital, who probably
0:08:37 > 0:08:43needed the dollar a day usually paid to experimental subjects.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47A corridor conveniently linked Albert's hospital home
0:08:47 > 0:08:48to Watson's lab.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54Now, Watson must have hoped this was going to be something memorable,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57because he filmed it, which was something extremely unusual for the time.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01Watson wanted to prove that though babies are born
0:09:01 > 0:09:04with an instinctive capacity for fear,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07initially, there is not much they're actually frightened of.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10They learn what to fear.
0:09:10 > 0:09:11Watson started by testing
0:09:11 > 0:09:16Albert's reaction to a series of potentially dangerous things.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18This is a burning pile of paper.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20Will Little Albert be frightened of it?
0:09:20 > 0:09:22And the answer is no -
0:09:22 > 0:09:27Little Albert was trying to reach out and grab the flames.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30He's obviously not frightened. He doesn't know that fire burns,
0:09:30 > 0:09:32he hasn't had that experience.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Then animals were pushed in front of him.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40Albert was curious, but showed no signs of actually being frightened.
0:09:40 > 0:09:41But Watson knew
0:09:41 > 0:09:46he COULD terrify Albert with loud, unexpected noises.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50So far what he'd done was pretty innocuous. The next bit wasn't.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Imagine this doll is Little Albert,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57and this bit of cotton wool is a mouse. Well, the mouse comes
0:09:57 > 0:10:01to play with Little Albert, and they have some fun together.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05And then, on one occasion, the experimenter comes up behind Little Albert
0:10:05 > 0:10:07and, completely unexpectedly,
0:10:07 > 0:10:11terrifies the kid by banging a loud noise.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14They do this again and again.
0:10:14 > 0:10:20What they wanted to see was, had they induced fear in Little Albert,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22towards the rat that he had previously really liked?
0:10:28 > 0:10:33Watson was deliberately trying to condition Albert to associate
0:10:33 > 0:10:36all these objects with fear.
0:10:36 > 0:10:42The test would be...would Albert be scared of them without needing to startle him with the bang?
0:10:45 > 0:10:50So Watson and his colleagues pushed the objects in front of Albert once more.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04Ooh.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Albert is obviously very uncomfortable.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12He's trying to run away, and they're almost torturing him.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14You can see it, he's crying.
0:11:14 > 0:11:15He's screaming...
0:11:15 > 0:11:19he doesn't want anything to do with it. He's trying to run away,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23and they're just bringing it back to him - it really is quite disturbing.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27Watson noted that when the rat alone was presented,
0:11:27 > 0:11:33Little Albert puckered his face and withdrew his body sharply to the left.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39Oh, and this is nasty - they've got the mask out now.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Oh, this is horrid. The experimenter's got the mask on
0:11:42 > 0:11:46and he's deliberately setting out to try and terrify the child.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51Watson had proved that you can learn fear of almost anything.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Extreme fear.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56You can make a person phobic.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00So I've read about the case of Little Albert before,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04but I've never seen the footage, and it's really quite upsetting,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08particularly when you think of him as an innocent young child of eight months,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11having these horrible things done to you by adults.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16There's a sort of coldness about this experiment,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19which is really, really uncomfortable.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Watson's work was a landmark.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30By frightening Little Albert, he had shown that, whilst our capacity
0:12:30 > 0:12:37for emotions is innate, how they develop depends on what we experience.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41The experiment ended after five months,
0:12:41 > 0:12:45when his mother got a new job and moved away.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50She took with her a child filled with fears.
0:12:50 > 0:12:56For nearly a century, one of psychology's most iconic figures vanished.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02Recently, however, a relentless researcher
0:13:02 > 0:13:04did manage to track him down.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11But there was to be no happy ending.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17Little Albert died from an infectious disease
0:13:17 > 0:13:20when he was a child.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24'Even the name Watson gave him isn't really his.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26'His mother called him Douglas.'
0:13:30 > 0:13:32He is this sort of big event in the history of psychology
0:13:32 > 0:13:35and yet he's also utterly anonymous...
0:13:36 > 0:13:39..which is quite sort of sad in its own way.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42And also because his mother...
0:13:42 > 0:13:46took his secrets with her to the grave, we have no idea what happened
0:13:46 > 0:13:48to Little Albert after he left.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53We have no idea whether the fear that was conditioned into him
0:13:53 > 0:13:56by Watson persisted.
0:13:56 > 0:13:57All we know
0:13:57 > 0:14:03is he lies here, he died aged six, probably of encephalitis,
0:14:03 > 0:14:05and that...
0:14:05 > 0:14:06his mother loved him.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21Fast-forward to the 21st century, and it's clear that the influence
0:14:21 > 0:14:25of the Little Albert experiment has been profound.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29Watson had shown that we learn fear by association.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33It wasn't long before others began using the same technique
0:14:33 > 0:14:35to reverse the effect,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39to use the power of association to unlearn fear.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46His legacy is behavioural therapy,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50one of the most effective treatments today for helping people with phobias.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57Ten years ago, I made a TV series about phobias.
0:14:57 > 0:14:58I particularly remember Daniel.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03He was so frightened of dogs, he could barely walk down the road.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05Oh, my God! Mum! Mum!
0:15:05 > 0:15:06It's all right, it's OK.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09It's OK, it's OK.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12But, look, he's coming up that way - please can we cross over?
0:15:12 > 0:15:14It's all right, it's all right.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18OK? Just keep walking - it's all right.
0:15:18 > 0:15:19- No, I don't...- OK?
0:15:22 > 0:15:25'Daniel had a few sessions with a behavioural psychologist,
0:15:25 > 0:15:27'which seemed to help.
0:15:27 > 0:15:28'But has it lasted?'
0:15:31 > 0:15:36'Daniel is now 20, and I've come to meet him with my own dog, Guy.'
0:15:36 > 0:15:39- Hello, there!- Hiya.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Hi, there. Michael.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44- Hiya. Daniel. - Hello, very nice to see you. - Hi, nice to meet you.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48You've changed a lot since I last saw you! Are you OK with Guy?
0:15:48 > 0:15:50Ah, yeah, fine. Yeah, it's no problem.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52Very good, very good, I'm impressed.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54Do you mind, I'm just going to bring Guy next to you?
0:15:54 > 0:15:56I just want to see, are you happy patting Guy?
0:15:56 > 0:15:58I don't mind.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02- There you go.- See that's not... that's fine NOW.- Yep.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04- But years ago, that would never have happened.- Yep.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07It's a lot, it's a lot easier to rationalise and weigh up now.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09Before it would have just been anything to get away from the situation.
0:16:09 > 0:16:15'Behavioural therapy does not claim to cure but to make fear manageable.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18'I wanted to see if Daniel would be able to handle
0:16:18 > 0:16:20'a bigger challenge than Guy.'
0:16:20 > 0:16:25- So what do you think about the one over there? - It's fine when it's over there.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27Would you be happy going over there and having a chat,
0:16:27 > 0:16:29or me bringing her back over here?
0:16:29 > 0:16:33I'd rather you didn't, to be honest, but I could probably walk past.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36Shall we go and see how close we can get before you feel uncomfortable?
0:16:36 > 0:16:39- Yeah, I think I can walk past, yeah. - Let's go and see. Come on, Guy!
0:16:41 > 0:16:45'Behavioural therapy involves gradually increasing the exposure
0:16:45 > 0:16:48'to whatever it is you fear.'
0:16:50 > 0:16:53So, out of ten at the moment?
0:16:53 > 0:16:54I'm anxious.
0:16:56 > 0:16:57Six or seven.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59- So it's going up?- It is, yeah.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02OK, tell me kind of when you want to stop, then.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08'If Daniel runs away now, his fear of dogs will be reinforced.'
0:17:10 > 0:17:14- See, this is OK. I mean, I wouldn't want to get much closer, to be honest.- OK.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20'But staying while his brain shrieks, "Run!" is hard to do.'
0:17:23 > 0:17:25You all right?
0:17:25 > 0:17:27I am, but...
0:17:27 > 0:17:32- Is your pulse running...? - Yeah, probably a bit faster.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34Mind if I just have a go at your pulse?
0:17:39 > 0:17:42- About 125, 130.- Which is...?
0:17:42 > 0:17:45- Which is about, I'd imagine, twice what it normally is.- Really?
0:17:45 > 0:17:49Yes. So I think you're feeling a trifle anxious.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57'If Daniel can tough it out, his anxiety will fade,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01'and he will start to break the association between dogs and fear.'
0:18:11 > 0:18:14You're now running at about 90.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17- Which is a little bit above.- It's a little bit, but it's come down...
0:18:17 > 0:18:22- In the last minute or so, it's come down from about 120 to 90.- Yep.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28'I don't think Daniel will ever love dogs, but nor will he allow
0:18:28 > 0:18:31'a fear of them to rule his life.'
0:18:31 > 0:18:34Well done. Really, really impressive.
0:18:45 > 0:18:50By the 1950s, psychologists felt they had a grasp of how fears develop
0:18:50 > 0:18:51and how they can be controlled.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56But what about a more positive emotion?
0:18:56 > 0:18:58What about love?
0:19:12 > 0:19:15I don't actually bring out these photographs very often,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18and they are incredibly evocative.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22This is me and Claire on our honeymoon,
0:19:22 > 0:19:24sort of looking at each other.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26And it brings a very sort of warm glow.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28And then these are pictures of...
0:19:28 > 0:19:30me and the kids growing up.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33That must be Jack, probably about two years old,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36very sweet.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41So what is love and what is it for?
0:19:42 > 0:19:46In the 1950s, the answers were unclear.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51There were just a series of assumptions going back half a century.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56They knew babies are born with basic instincts,
0:19:56 > 0:19:58and the most basic is to eat.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03The dominant idea was that affection and love develop
0:20:03 > 0:20:05towards whoever is feeding us.
0:20:05 > 0:20:11Love is just there to reinforce this bond with the feeder.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16But no-one had put this idea to the test.
0:20:19 > 0:20:24People didn't understand how you could study it, let alone...
0:20:24 > 0:20:26be willing to study it.
0:20:26 > 0:20:32It was something which was seen as almost unstudyable,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34certainly in the laboratory,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37and that anyone who attempted to do so was probably a fool.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41One man who thought that, as far as love was concerned,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45psychology had been a complete failure, was Harry Harlow.
0:20:48 > 0:20:54In 1958, Harlow set about challenging this by doing a strange
0:20:54 > 0:20:56and compelling experiment.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02What Harlow wanted to do was explore love.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05Now, how do you actually do something like that?
0:21:05 > 0:21:07Well, he had an idea -
0:21:07 > 0:21:09it's rather extraordinary and certainly bizarre.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17What Harlow needed for his experiments were baby monkeys
0:21:17 > 0:21:20and very basic building materials.
0:21:22 > 0:21:28What Harlow wanted to investigate was the nature
0:21:28 > 0:21:30of love between a mother and a child.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34What is it a child really wants?
0:21:37 > 0:21:40This was going to help him answer that.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45'There were lots of theories about love and the relationship
0:21:45 > 0:21:50'between a mother and child but virtually no experimental data.'
0:21:52 > 0:21:53Ah!
0:21:53 > 0:21:56HE LAUGHS Right.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59So what Harlow was attempting to do
0:21:59 > 0:22:01was build...
0:22:01 > 0:22:05something which was a sort of surrogate mummy monkey.
0:22:05 > 0:22:10'The baby monkeys were to be separated from their mothers
0:22:10 > 0:22:16'and then offered DIY alternatives, built out of bits of scrap.'
0:22:16 > 0:22:20Now, the interesting thing is that Harlow was doing this fascia,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23not really for the benefit
0:22:23 > 0:22:25of the baby monkeys,
0:22:25 > 0:22:31but because he wanted parents to identify with this...
0:22:31 > 0:22:33funny little creature he was creating.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39Harlow wanted this to be about people, not just monkeys.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41And finally what I need is...
0:22:41 > 0:22:46yes, one of these - basically, a source of food.
0:22:47 > 0:22:48A mother,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52pared down to her absolutely bare essentials - basically one...
0:22:52 > 0:22:57breast, if you like, one nipple to feed, one face to smile
0:22:57 > 0:22:59and a frame to sort of cuddle onto.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03Right, so that was monkey number one.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06Now he needed to build monkey number two.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13'The purpose of the experiment was to offer baby monkeys
0:23:13 > 0:23:19'two types of surrogate mother and see which they preferred.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24'One would offer food, the other something less obvious.'
0:23:26 > 0:23:30At this point, these two monkeys look really quite similar,
0:23:30 > 0:23:34but I'm just going to add Harlow's final touch.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40'To the second surrogate mother, Harlow added just one thing -
0:23:40 > 0:23:41'a soft cover.'
0:23:43 > 0:23:46And the question was, if he took a baby monkey and he introduced
0:23:46 > 0:23:51the baby monkey to these two parents, who would it prefer to go to?
0:23:51 > 0:23:55Conventional theory said that you get love, or love is generated,
0:23:55 > 0:23:59by fulfilling something of your basic wants.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02So, in theory, and that's certainly what everyone believed at the time,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06the baby monkeys would become attached and bonded to this monkey,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09because this monkey is providing milk, it is satisfying a need,
0:24:09 > 0:24:11satisfying hunger.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13So what happened?
0:24:18 > 0:24:20Harry Harlow is no longer alive,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24but I'm going to meet someone who worked very closely with him.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34- Hello?- Hi, come on in, come on in!
0:24:34 > 0:24:36Hello, thank you.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Wooh! Well, hello.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41- What happened?- Hi.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Ah, as I heard somebody once say,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46I put my foot down, and it broke itself.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49'Len Rosenbaum is an eminent psychologist.'
0:24:49 > 0:24:52We're going, I think, into this front room.
0:24:52 > 0:24:53Fabulous.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58Did people really think it was enough just to feed and to clothe?
0:24:58 > 0:25:02I think, at that time, people thought those primary drives,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05the survival needs,
0:25:05 > 0:25:10were enough to carry infants - monkeys or others -
0:25:10 > 0:25:12from immaturity to maturity.
0:25:12 > 0:25:18No-one, at that point, thought that something like what Harlow
0:25:18 > 0:25:24called the affectional drives, these bonding tendencies, were in a sense
0:25:24 > 0:25:28as primary as the need for food, the need for water and so on.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31Thus the experiment.
0:25:31 > 0:25:32OK.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40'The baby monkeys were offered their choice.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42'Harlow recorded exactly what happened.'
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Watch!
0:25:50 > 0:25:52He's going to the wire mother.
0:25:52 > 0:25:59The baby readily fed from the wire object, but rather rapidly left the wire mother
0:25:59 > 0:26:04and then spent its time clinging, 15, 16, 18 hours a day...
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Each of these had a clock attached, so you could time
0:26:08 > 0:26:13how much time was the baby spending clinging to one or the other.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19The attachment was developed towards the cloth surrogate,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22regardless of the source of the food.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26So it was not food in the end - it was touch which was important to the baby monkey?
0:26:26 > 0:26:28That was what these experiments purported to show, yes.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33'Having shown that the babies preferred the cloth mother,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36'they wanted to investigate what this really meant.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40'What was the baby feeling for the cloth mother?'
0:26:40 > 0:26:43The whole idea was to ask the question...
0:26:43 > 0:26:49well, fine, the kid prefers the cloth, even though the wire feeds.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52But what... how far does that preference go?
0:26:52 > 0:26:53What's its ultimate meaning?
0:26:55 > 0:27:00'They used fear to test the strength of the baby's bond.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04'Faced with a scary object, which mother would they run to?'
0:27:04 > 0:27:10And now Dr Harlow is, ah, moving to the front
0:27:10 > 0:27:14of the cage one of these very scary objects.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19- He raises the door, scares it... - The monkey goes, "Ah!" - ..and the baby rushes away.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21- Immediate, isn't it? - Where does it rush?
0:27:21 > 0:27:26Not to the feeder but to the cloth surrogate.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30So Mummy really is providing everything they need - protection...?
0:27:30 > 0:27:33- Exactly. The thing is to be in her presence.- So this is love?
0:27:33 > 0:27:37- This is what Harlow would call love in a way?- This is what Harlow would call love.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39And I'm inclined to agree.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42'Next, Len and Harlow tested
0:27:42 > 0:27:46'the strength of a baby's love for its mother.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50'Just how unpleasant would the cloth mother have to be
0:27:50 > 0:27:54'before the baby monkey ceased to want it?'
0:27:54 > 0:27:58What I did was to try and provide a mother, a cloth mother,
0:27:58 > 0:28:02that the infant would become attached to
0:28:02 > 0:28:06but which would provide a kind of rejection,
0:28:06 > 0:28:10which meant that what I did was used compressed air
0:28:10 > 0:28:15to blow a blast of air at the kid, at some periodic interval.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19The baby then steps off, gets away, and then what happens?
0:28:19 > 0:28:23That's the question. Does the kid say, "Well, I don't want any more of this.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25"I don't... This is not for me"?
0:28:25 > 0:28:29No, just the opposite. The theory is this...what if,
0:28:29 > 0:28:34every time you're emotionally upset, you do the thing that you always do
0:28:34 > 0:28:37when you're emotionally upset, you rush to your mother?
0:28:37 > 0:28:42But now when you're on your mother, I make you even more emotionally upset, what do you do?
0:28:42 > 0:28:45Well, you want to be on your mother even more!
0:28:45 > 0:28:49There's a linkage between the infant's emotional state
0:28:49 > 0:28:55and its desire to be on the mother, even if the mother is the source
0:28:55 > 0:28:57of that emotional distress.
0:28:57 > 0:28:58I mean, it kind of makes sense,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01but when I was working with delinquent children, it always...
0:29:01 > 0:29:04I was young, I was sort of 20, but I was surprised
0:29:04 > 0:29:08by the extent to which these children, who frankly
0:29:08 > 0:29:12had abusive mothers... It didn't matter HOW badly their mothers had
0:29:12 > 0:29:16behaved to them - they would get really, really angry if you ever,
0:29:16 > 0:29:18EVER accused their mothers of being in any way inadequate.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20Absolutely the case.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25And it was exactly those kinds of observations, at the human level,
0:29:25 > 0:29:29that was a natural bridge for us to study.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35These experiments threw a powerful light on a baby's need
0:29:35 > 0:29:37for its parents' touch.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40But Harlow was about to go further.
0:29:40 > 0:29:46He now asked...what would happen if we had no love, no contact -
0:29:46 > 0:29:48nobody at all?
0:29:48 > 0:29:52Would this lead to depression and despair?
0:29:52 > 0:29:54And if so, would this help our understanding
0:29:54 > 0:29:56of this terrible affliction?
0:29:56 > 0:30:00Harlow himself had suffered from depression.
0:30:00 > 0:30:05He put baby monkeys in total isolation, for up to a year.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10Some were not only isolated, but confined in a restricted space
0:30:10 > 0:30:12known as the Well of Despair.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15All the monkeys came out
0:30:15 > 0:30:20severely disturbed - those placed in the well were particularly damaged.
0:30:23 > 0:30:28'Len did not work with Harlow on these experiments.'
0:30:28 > 0:30:30Do you think the research was justified?
0:30:30 > 0:30:32Would you have stopped him if you'd had the choice then?
0:30:32 > 0:30:36The isolation experiments, I probably would not have.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39The Well of Despair studies, I probably would have.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42But, what was the goal?
0:30:42 > 0:30:46If we could create a meaningful, valid
0:30:46 > 0:30:48monkey model of depression,
0:30:48 > 0:30:52would that be worthwhile?
0:30:52 > 0:30:54Without question in my mind,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57I would say it would be ABSOLUTELY worthwhile.
0:30:57 > 0:31:02- Whatever you had to do to the monkeys to achieve that? - Well...that's your phrase,
0:31:02 > 0:31:06I don't know... I can't answer the "whatever I had to do".
0:31:06 > 0:31:12But, would I have said, if I were on a grant committee, reviewing
0:31:12 > 0:31:17research that said, "Our goal is to create a monkey model of depression
0:31:17 > 0:31:22"that would allow us to understand ultimately brain mechanisms" -
0:31:22 > 0:31:26I would say - having worked in a psychiatry department for 47 years -
0:31:26 > 0:31:29you're damn right I would have been supportive of it.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32To be able to solve that problem - to be able to knock
0:31:32 > 0:31:37a piece of that problem out of the way - is OVERWHELMINGLY worth it.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54'Harlow's work is deeply controversial.
0:31:54 > 0:31:55'But what he gave the world
0:31:55 > 0:31:59'is something that I think is of profound importance.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05'He proved just how much we all need affection
0:32:05 > 0:32:07'and close physical contact.'
0:32:08 > 0:32:10OK...
0:32:10 > 0:32:12"When we were walking home from school,
0:32:12 > 0:32:14"Betty told me she had this idea..."
0:32:14 > 0:32:17- "Tells." - "Tells", yeah. Thank you...
0:32:17 > 0:32:20'After Harlow, hospital-born babies were no longer
0:32:20 > 0:32:24'separated from their mothers, but placed physically close to them.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28'What had seemed natural to so many mothers
0:32:28 > 0:32:30'was now confirmed by science.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35'This particular experiment utterly altered the way that people dealt
0:32:35 > 0:32:39'with the subject of love, and the way they brought up children.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41'From then on you begin to see that'
0:32:41 > 0:32:45the important thing is that children should feel touched, cuddled, held.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50And for that, I am profoundly, profoundly grateful to Harlow.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00Watson had shown that emotions are learnt,
0:33:00 > 0:33:04and Harlow, that we are intensely social creatures.
0:33:04 > 0:33:09So it was natural to put these two ideas together, and ask,
0:33:09 > 0:33:13how much of what we do and feel is learnt from other people?
0:33:13 > 0:33:19In 1961, American psychologist Albert Bandura set out to see
0:33:19 > 0:33:24how far just watching other people influences our behaviour.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30Bandura chose to study aggression.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34At the time, the widespread view
0:33:34 > 0:33:40was that watching violence reduces aggression - it purges us.
0:33:40 > 0:33:41But was this true?
0:33:48 > 0:33:52To find out, Bandura experimented on small children
0:33:52 > 0:33:54aged three to five.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02So what Bandura did, is he put an adult in a room with a child
0:34:02 > 0:34:03and a bunch of toys, including
0:34:03 > 0:34:08something he called the "Bobo doll", which is a giant inflatable doll.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12Then, what happened after about a minute is the adult unexpectedly
0:34:12 > 0:34:15started beating up the doll in really quite a vicious manner -
0:34:15 > 0:34:18shouting, screaming, kicking,
0:34:18 > 0:34:22hitting with a hammer - and went on like this for about ten minutes.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27What would the child do, if after watching the adult
0:34:27 > 0:34:31they were left in a room on their own, with the same toys?
0:34:38 > 0:34:40Ooh! She really is going for it.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47She's doing exactly the same as she saw the adult do, she's lifted
0:34:47 > 0:34:50the doll up and now she's really hammering it.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53She's got a little hammer out, and she's having a go at its toes now.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55Which shows innovation if nothing else...
0:34:56 > 0:34:59'Every child who'd watched the adult being violent
0:34:59 > 0:35:01'copied much of what they'd seen.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04'The closest imitation
0:35:04 > 0:35:07'was when a child observed an adult of the same sex.'
0:35:07 > 0:35:09Now he's got the gun out, and he's using
0:35:09 > 0:35:13a combination of the gun and the hammer to just whack the doll.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17He's got a very aggressive expression on his face.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23'Importantly, another group who had watched an adult play gently
0:35:23 > 0:35:27'played calmly, showing no signs of aggression.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31'Basically, what the children saw, the children did.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35'This was an utterly unexpected finding.'
0:35:38 > 0:35:42Before Bandura did this experiment, psychologists thought that
0:35:42 > 0:35:43seeing somebody else acting out
0:35:43 > 0:35:47a violent scene would be cathartic, it would sort of purge you.
0:35:47 > 0:35:49But what this clearly demonstrated,
0:35:49 > 0:35:51and really shocked people at the time,
0:35:51 > 0:35:53is that actually what happens when
0:35:53 > 0:35:58you see something doing violent actions - you tend to imitate them.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05Bandura's findings were given added impact by his timing.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10His experiment took place just as television was moving into the home.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14Two years later,
0:36:14 > 0:36:19Bandura re-ran his experiment with one important difference.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24This time, he wanted to compare how children react
0:36:24 > 0:36:30to watching an aggressive adult not in real life - but on film.
0:36:32 > 0:36:33Children watched two versions.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36One was a straightforward recording
0:36:36 > 0:36:39of the adult beating up the Bobo doll.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42The second, a fantasy version,
0:36:42 > 0:36:46with the attacking adult dressed as a cat.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49In almost every case, Bandura got the same results -
0:36:49 > 0:36:52children imitated what they'd seen.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55The results were dynamite.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00This was one of the first experiments
0:37:00 > 0:37:03to look at the impact of television violence.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05The complicated relationship between
0:37:05 > 0:37:09TV and behaviour is still being debated.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12But it was Bandura who opened the floodgates,
0:37:12 > 0:37:16and launched an entirely new area of research.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27Right. OK - oven on...
0:37:27 > 0:37:30'Bandura had shown that we CAN be strongly influenced
0:37:30 > 0:37:32'by other people's behaviour.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36'This is the basis of so-called social learning theory.'
0:37:36 > 0:37:38We don't have a bowl.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42- OK, so we measure out about... - How much?- Four ounces, I think.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44Which one's ounces? The quarter one?
0:37:44 > 0:37:50'But it's also clear that how we learn changes as we mature.
0:37:50 > 0:37:55'As we grow up, something else happens to temper our behaviour.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59'We develop a capacity to reflect on what we see.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03'We identify with other people.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05'We develop empathy.'
0:38:05 > 0:38:08- Mmm... Tastes good. - It's good, isn't it?
0:38:09 > 0:38:12'So how exactly do we DO this?'
0:38:12 > 0:38:17Well, for decades nobody really knew, and then researchers developed
0:38:17 > 0:38:21new ways of looking inside the brain for answers.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32I'm on my way to Holland, to experience experimentation
0:38:32 > 0:38:3521st-century style.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39We've left the world of abuse and exploitation behind -
0:38:39 > 0:38:43though what I'm about to do WILL involve pain.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52Christian Keysers is researching empathy,
0:38:52 > 0:38:55by trying to watch it at work in our brains.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02So we think the big question is a bit, how we understand other people.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05And I think you've all experienced that sometimes you'd
0:39:05 > 0:39:09see your partner, for instance, accidentally hurting herself.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12And when you see that, the funny thing is you don't just realise
0:39:12 > 0:39:14that the other person IS in pain,
0:39:14 > 0:39:18but you almost have to hold your own finger, because you kind of embody
0:39:18 > 0:39:21to a certain extent the pain of the other.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23And so what our lab is all about
0:39:23 > 0:39:26is trying to understand, at the level of the brain,
0:39:26 > 0:39:30what happens while we get these very strong insights
0:39:30 > 0:39:32into what somebody else is feeling.
0:39:34 > 0:39:39Christian is investigating the extent to which our own feelings of pain
0:39:39 > 0:39:43are important in understanding the pain of others.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48So basically there's going to be two phases to the experiment...
0:39:48 > 0:39:52There's a first phase in which you're going to be watching movies,
0:39:52 > 0:39:54and then there's going to be a part
0:39:54 > 0:39:59where you're going to be actually experiencing some moderate pain...
0:39:59 > 0:40:01How are you going to create the pain?
0:40:01 > 0:40:04Well, I think you're going to find out a little bit later on
0:40:04 > 0:40:06in the experiment.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13'Christian is going to collect two sets of data.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16'First, he records what happens in MY brain
0:40:16 > 0:40:19'when I see someone else in pain.'
0:40:19 > 0:40:20OK, ready to go?
0:40:20 > 0:40:22- Yep.- OK, here we go...
0:40:35 > 0:40:38- OK, Michael? How was that?- Fine...
0:40:38 > 0:40:41'Then, he measures what happens in my brain, when I am repeatedly
0:40:41 > 0:40:45'and enthusiastically whacked by one of his colleagues.'
0:40:45 > 0:40:47Three, two, one... Go.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52Three, two, one... Stop.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55'The two brain scans can then be compared.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01'What they're finding suggests that empathy is actually measurable.
0:41:01 > 0:41:07'Many of the same brain areas light up, whether we are experiencing pain
0:41:07 > 0:41:10'or watching someone else in pain.'
0:41:13 > 0:41:16What's really special about this area we're in,
0:41:16 > 0:41:21is that by seeing that the same brain area is active in two cases
0:41:21 > 0:41:24you don't just see WHERE in the brain it's being done,
0:41:24 > 0:41:28but you see that it's done by this recall of your own experience.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38When tested this way, people show very different responses.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40I'm a bit nervous.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45Will the machine reveal that I am warm and empathic -
0:41:45 > 0:41:48or perhaps a secret psychopath?
0:41:49 > 0:41:52"I often have tender, concerned feelings
0:41:52 > 0:41:54"for people less fortunate than me"...
0:41:54 > 0:41:56Yeah, I... Mmm, yeah.
0:41:56 > 0:42:02'This questionnaire will help them compare how empathetic I think I am
0:42:02 > 0:42:05'with how empathetic the MACHINE thinks I am.'
0:42:06 > 0:42:10"When I see someone get hurt, I tend to remain calm"...
0:42:10 > 0:42:12No, that probably doesn't describe me very well.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18'First, Christian shows me what happened when I was slapped.'
0:42:19 > 0:42:22This created very reasonable results. So you...
0:42:22 > 0:42:24you did activate your S1,
0:42:24 > 0:42:29- your S2, your insula and your ACC, just like your average Joe.- OK...
0:42:29 > 0:42:33'So far, I was normal. I'd activated areas involved in
0:42:33 > 0:42:36'sensation and emotion, like most people do.'
0:42:37 > 0:42:42Now, this is the part where you probably want to distract your wife.
0:42:42 > 0:42:47While we were showing you the movies the first thing we saw was this.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51None of the red areas get reactivated while you observed it.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55And now you can call her again, because what we then did was
0:42:55 > 0:42:59we lowered the threshold a bit, kind of looking for weaker activity,
0:42:59 > 0:43:03and when we did that, we actually saw that you do have activity
0:43:03 > 0:43:07that is typical - but there was lower than what we find on average.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10So I'm not a psychopath,
0:43:10 > 0:43:13but I'm not, erm...wholly in touch with the feelings of others?
0:43:13 > 0:43:19- Exactly. You're not the most soft-hearted person, maybe.- OK.
0:43:19 > 0:43:20Where you reacted yesterday...
0:43:20 > 0:43:23'What made it more embarrassing, was the brain images
0:43:23 > 0:43:27'did not match the answers I had given on the questionnaire.'
0:43:27 > 0:43:29OK - maybe I lack insight, then.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34That could actually be, because one of the funny things is
0:43:34 > 0:43:36when we scanned a psychopath,
0:43:36 > 0:43:41the brain images really suggested that they weren't all that empathic,
0:43:41 > 0:43:45but the questionnaires made it look like they were model citizens!
0:43:45 > 0:43:48Oh, God, so I AM a psychopath?! There you go.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51Well, maybe that's pushing it a little bit, but...
0:43:51 > 0:43:53I think what tends to happen is we tend to, erm,
0:43:53 > 0:43:56exaggerate our best characters, don't we? We have vain brains.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58- Yes.- Yes, quite.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01So what the brain scans are doing, in a funny way,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04is they are answering one of the more fundamental questions -
0:44:04 > 0:44:07which is who are we, as opposed to who we THINK we are.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09Yes!
0:44:15 > 0:44:18Our understanding of empathy is developing,
0:44:18 > 0:44:22because today's technology allows us to see inside the brain.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27It's revealing that empathy seems to be deeply embedded
0:44:27 > 0:44:29in the networks of our minds.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34While I'm witnessing you go through some experiences,
0:44:34 > 0:44:36my brain does exactly that -
0:44:36 > 0:44:39it doesn't just make me SEE what is going on in you,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42it makes me share all the different senses.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44I will feel the pain you go through,
0:44:44 > 0:44:48I will empathise with the actions you do to get away from it.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53It really reminds us of the fact
0:44:53 > 0:44:57that we are kind of incredibly social by nature -
0:44:57 > 0:44:59that kind of everybody around us
0:44:59 > 0:45:02is not just around us, but kind of IN us.
0:45:11 > 0:45:16Cutting-edge technology, and sometimes brutal experiments,
0:45:16 > 0:45:19have each opened a window onto human emotions.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23But there is another way we have come to learn about
0:45:23 > 0:45:27the role of emotions in our lives, and that's an accidental by-product
0:45:27 > 0:45:31of terrible personal misfortune.
0:45:35 > 0:45:41In the 1990s, a neuroscientist called Antonio Damasio started researching
0:45:41 > 0:45:46patients who had damaged a part of the brain key for normal emotions.
0:45:49 > 0:45:54He was struck by the differences in the way they were making decisions.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57His research would reveal the
0:45:57 > 0:46:02surprisingly pervasive role emotions have in every corner of our lives.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10Dave is a patient, like those in Damasio's original study.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14Until eight years ago, life was good.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21We, um, had a really good relationship I think.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24Very affectionate, yeah. Very loving.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29He could put himself in my shoes and think about,
0:46:29 > 0:46:31what could he do to make me feel
0:46:31 > 0:46:36more at ease? And so he would do those kinds of nice things.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39In 2002, Dave was diagnosed
0:46:39 > 0:46:43with a brain tumour, and had surgery to remove it.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47What neither he nor his wife realised,
0:46:47 > 0:46:49was that the operation would involve
0:46:49 > 0:46:54removing a part of his brain crucial for processing emotion.
0:46:54 > 0:46:59When he woke up, he just was...
0:46:59 > 0:47:01really um...cold.
0:47:01 > 0:47:06He told me he didn't want me to touch him, or talk to him...
0:47:07 > 0:47:10The doctor came, the surgeon, and I said, you know,
0:47:10 > 0:47:13"That's not Dave. What happened?"
0:47:14 > 0:47:19Dave's IQ was unaffected, and he has returned to his job
0:47:19 > 0:47:21as an animal psychologist.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24But he is very conscious of being changed.
0:47:25 > 0:47:30'A lot has gone, from that aspect. Emotionally flat.'
0:47:32 > 0:47:35It's... that's the toughest thing, is uh...
0:47:35 > 0:47:37you don't realise how important emotions are
0:47:37 > 0:47:42until you don't feel 'em, and you can only remember 'em.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46- Hi...- Hi.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50Dave had not fallen out of love with Lisa...
0:47:50 > 0:47:53but he was no longer capable of feeling it.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56They divorced - but she remains devoted to him,
0:47:56 > 0:47:59and takes him to all his medical appointments.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04Do you want any more coffee before we go?
0:48:04 > 0:48:06No, I've just filled up.
0:48:07 > 0:48:08Well, shall we...?
0:48:08 > 0:48:10All right.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16Dave's case is so rare,
0:48:16 > 0:48:21he is being studied by a doctor who trained under Antonio Damasio.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25At Wisconsin University, Dr Koenig is continuing
0:48:25 > 0:48:29the investigations started by his teacher, into the impact of emotions
0:48:29 > 0:48:32on our capacity to reason.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38So is it fair to say that
0:48:38 > 0:48:41you're maybe not operating with the same intuition in terms of emotion,
0:48:41 > 0:48:45but you're relying more on the sort of cognitive or rule-based
0:48:45 > 0:48:48strategy to try to...you know, put together what this person might be
0:48:48 > 0:48:53thinking, and, you know, "What is MY responsibility in this situation?"
0:48:53 > 0:48:54Right. It's...
0:48:54 > 0:48:57I have to... think about what it would feel like
0:48:57 > 0:48:59rather than feel it.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01Mm-hm...
0:49:01 > 0:49:04I was...thinking the other day...
0:49:05 > 0:49:09And I don't want this to sound strange, but I imagined,
0:49:09 > 0:49:14"Well, maybe serial killers don't have emotions"...
0:49:14 > 0:49:18Not that I would ever be a serial killer, but I think
0:49:18 > 0:49:20I have that sense of...
0:49:21 > 0:49:24- ..it doesn't bother me. - Mm-hm.- You know what I mean?
0:49:24 > 0:49:28But the thing that prevents me from BEING a serial killer
0:49:28 > 0:49:31is that I... can remember that I'm not.
0:49:38 > 0:49:39Hello...
0:49:39 > 0:49:43'What Dave is experiencing is intensely personal,
0:49:43 > 0:49:46'but it is also scientifically revealing.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50'I wanted to meet Dave's doctor, to find out what had happened
0:49:50 > 0:49:54'to his brain to produce these profound changes.'
0:49:56 > 0:49:58So what are we looking at?
0:49:58 > 0:50:00So here we're looking at Dave's brain
0:50:00 > 0:50:03in a number of different views.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05As we move forward in his brain
0:50:05 > 0:50:07you can see, here are his eyes...
0:50:07 > 0:50:08Ooh, dear...
0:50:08 > 0:50:12Yeah, so...so right above his eyes you can see...
0:50:12 > 0:50:15- That's tragic.- ..very obviously a loss of tissue there on the right.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20Can he still... READ emotions - say, in Lisa...
0:50:20 > 0:50:22If he saw someone crying, I mean, he would know that,
0:50:22 > 0:50:24you know, tears mean this person is sad.
0:50:24 > 0:50:28Now, if that would MEAN anything to him, if that would impact him
0:50:28 > 0:50:30emotionally, is a different question.
0:50:30 > 0:50:35So he can probably recognise these social and emotional cues
0:50:35 > 0:50:39that are emitted by other people, but...
0:50:39 > 0:50:41you know, can he use those to influence
0:50:41 > 0:50:44HIS decision-making, is a different process.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49Patients like Dave are making it increasingly clear
0:50:49 > 0:50:54that our power to reason is NOT independent of our emotions.
0:50:54 > 0:50:59They are supporting the evidence first gathered by Antonio Damasio.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03Through most of the 20th century there was this
0:51:03 > 0:51:09really predominant view that our decision-making is dominated by some
0:51:09 > 0:51:12cold, logical processing, some reasoning.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15So I think Antonio Damasio's work
0:51:15 > 0:51:19was seminal from the standpoint of highlighting the importance of
0:51:19 > 0:51:24emotion for decision-making. And patients like Dave were really
0:51:24 > 0:51:28the key piece of evidence like that.
0:51:29 > 0:51:34Damasio undermined the widely held belief that most of our decisions are
0:51:34 > 0:51:38logical ones, by devising an ingenious test.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41He took his inspiration from gambling.
0:51:44 > 0:51:50He devised a gambling test, that would try to mimic the uncertain mix
0:51:50 > 0:51:54of risk and benefits that we juggle with in everyday life.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58Damasio was convinced that, even when we THINK we are making a decision
0:51:58 > 0:52:03based on reasoning, we are actually following an emotional hunch.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10'Damasio tested this by a carefully designed gambling task.'
0:52:11 > 0:52:13OK, so I've got 2,000...
0:52:13 > 0:52:16and I will pick this one here.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18Reward, penalty... Good, I'm 2,100.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20Let's keep going on that one.
0:52:20 > 0:52:23'I'm playing a computer version of the game.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25'The player is offered four rows of cards.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29'They sample each one, and find out that two of them
0:52:29 > 0:52:32'will give them small but consistent rewards.'
0:52:32 > 0:52:33I like this one...
0:52:33 > 0:52:37'The other two give them big rewards, but also big losses.'
0:52:37 > 0:52:39Aaagh...!
0:52:39 > 0:52:41Damn!
0:52:41 > 0:52:44'Normal people respond before they are even aware of this.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48'They just instinctively feel wary of the risky cards.'
0:52:48 > 0:52:51Oh... That's a bad one. That is a bad one.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55'They are not necessarily conscious of this.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58'They have an emotional cue -
0:52:58 > 0:53:01'what we often call a gut instinct.'
0:53:05 > 0:53:08"You earned a total of 2,900." Whoa!
0:53:08 > 0:53:11"You may now leave. Please alert the experimenter that you are done.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14"Press the X to exit."
0:53:14 > 0:53:18So, yes... OK, that was fun!
0:53:18 > 0:53:24'What struck me, was I had no idea I was getting an emotional cue.'
0:53:24 > 0:53:26That feels like a sort of simple, logical decision,
0:53:26 > 0:53:28it doesn't feel like an emotional decision.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32Right - well, in the end, after enough experience,
0:53:32 > 0:53:35you do sort of process it at this sort of
0:53:35 > 0:53:38explicit level, where you say "This is just a logical choice."
0:53:38 > 0:53:41But as you're going through the test, what we've found is that
0:53:41 > 0:53:43neurologically healthy individuals
0:53:43 > 0:53:47will start to move towards the safer decks before they can explicitly
0:53:47 > 0:53:51articulate that these decks are safer than the other ones.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53So they seem to be operating more on an emotional hunch.
0:53:53 > 0:53:58So actually, what I think of as a logical decision is actually
0:53:58 > 0:54:02a rationalisation after the event - my gut has already decided which is
0:54:02 > 0:54:05the safe bet, and then my... intelligence catches up with it!
0:54:05 > 0:54:07Yeah, that's one way to put it, that your emotional system
0:54:07 > 0:54:10is really the instrument of learning here, which precedes
0:54:10 > 0:54:12your sort of conscious awareness.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16- DAVE:- 50 bucks...
0:54:18 > 0:54:21Dave has never done the gambling test before.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25With his damaged emotions, how will he do?
0:54:32 > 0:54:34Right, I lose money there.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37Penalties...
0:54:45 > 0:54:48- You owe us some money, Dave!- I do. - You owe us some money.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52- 1,500... 1,450. - Get your chequebook out.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54- I'd rather owe it to you. - DR KOENIG LAUGHS
0:54:54 > 0:54:57Yeah, I didn't learn anything on that, did I?
0:54:57 > 0:55:01- You win some, you lose some. That's what gambling's all about.- Yep.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03So as you were doing it, did you have any feeling that
0:55:03 > 0:55:08"This is sort of a risky decision", or "This is a safe play", or...?
0:55:08 > 0:55:10Um...no.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25We go through life thinking decisions we make - big or small -
0:55:25 > 0:55:30are the result of our uniquely human ability to think rationally.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32But as Dave and other
0:55:32 > 0:55:37unfortunate individuals show us, reason without emotion is nothing.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45On a more personal level,
0:55:45 > 0:55:50Dave also shows us how vital emotion is to feeling alive,
0:55:50 > 0:55:55and how crucial empathy is to even knowing who you are.
0:55:56 > 0:56:03I'm going through life missing some of these important pieces that
0:56:03 > 0:56:06we don't have to think about, that just happen.
0:56:09 > 0:56:14The longer I go basing what I should feel on memory,
0:56:14 > 0:56:18I'm kind of nervous that eventually the memory will fade,
0:56:18 > 0:56:23and then trying to remember what the actual emotion felt like will be...
0:56:24 > 0:56:25..more mysterious.
0:56:27 > 0:56:29At least now I have the memory -
0:56:29 > 0:56:34so I can at least go through life with that understanding.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37If I didn't have that memory...
0:56:38 > 0:56:43..I guess it would be a lonely, lonely existence.
0:56:45 > 0:56:47BAT CHIRRUPS
0:56:55 > 0:56:56CHILD SHRIEKS AND GIGGLES
0:57:01 > 0:57:02Whoa...!
0:57:04 > 0:57:06You want to try that, Clare?
0:57:07 > 0:57:11'Nearly a century since Watson set out to terrify Little Albert,
0:57:11 > 0:57:13'and in the process triggered an extraordinary
0:57:13 > 0:57:18'and sometimes disturbing quest to try and understand human emotions...
0:57:20 > 0:57:24'..we now realise that, far from being something you have to curb,
0:57:24 > 0:57:27'suppress, restrain,'
0:57:27 > 0:57:31emotions are actually central to becoming a rational, complex,
0:57:31 > 0:57:34fully functioning human being.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38Snap!
0:57:39 > 0:57:42'But the price of applying the scientific method
0:57:42 > 0:57:46'to the study of the mind has been high -
0:57:46 > 0:57:48'terribly high in some cases.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52'And this leaves me with conflicting feelings.'
0:57:55 > 0:57:59Some of the experiments, particularly the later work with monkeys carried
0:57:59 > 0:58:03out by Harlow, and the experiments done on Little Albert, you just
0:58:03 > 0:58:06couldn't justify, you couldn't get away with, in the modern age.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08I certainly would obviously
0:58:08 > 0:58:12never allow any of MY children to be terrified as part of an experiment.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15But do I think it was worthwhile in the end?
0:58:15 > 0:58:18Yes, I do. I'm glad it was done.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21I do believe that the knowledge that was gained
0:58:21 > 0:58:24was worth the price that was paid.
0:58:49 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:52 > 0:58:54E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk