By evaluating a person’s movements and coordination, you can understand a lot about him. Perhaps even too much. For example, to determine whether he is suitable for the role of the victim.
It is known that a small percentage of criminals commit most of all crimes. The same is true for their victims – some people are much more likely to be attacked. Back in the 1980s, New York psychologists Betty Grayson and Morris Stein filmed New York passers-by and showed them to 53 inmates serving time for assaulting strangers on the street, asking them to rate who of passers-by looks more like a potential victim (1). On average, women and the elderly were considered the most defenseless, but among young men there were those whom the criminals considered easy prey. The researchers then turned to professional dancers and asked them to analyze the movements and gait of the “victims”. The dancers determined that their coordination was worse than the others.
However, they did not fully believe in the data received: the problem is that, looking at the videos, the criminals could evaluate other factors, for example, the clothes of passers-by. That is why, two decades later, a group of scientists from New Zealand led by Lucy Johnson decided to conduct a new study that excluded extraneous factors (2). They filmed the walk of the subjects, dressed in a black suit with light sources attached to the joints. As a result, only . It has been previously proven that by observing a moving frame, we can determine a person’s gender and even their mood. The researchers found that in this case, too, the volunteers looking at the images were especially likely to describe some people as easy prey for criminals.
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The scientists also wanted to find out if a person, through training, can change the coordination of movements so that he is no longer perceived as a potential victim. In the first experiment, the movements of a group of volunteers were assessed before and after a short self-defense course. There were no significant changes. In the second experiment, the subjects were specifically trained to move more synchronously and vigorously – these are the factors, as the researchers found, are most important in determining the “victims”. After training, it became clear that the subjects became less vulnerable (3). The positive effect persisted even after repeated testing a month later.
1. B. Grayson, M. Stein «Attracting Assault: Victims’Nonverbal Cues». Journal of Communication, 1981, № 31.
2. L. Johnston et al. «Changing Kinematics as a Means of Reducing Vulnerability to Physical Attack». Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2004, 34: 514–537.
3. E. Gunns, L. Johnston, S. Hudson «Victim selection and kinematics: A point-light investigation of vulnerability to attack». Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 2002, 26(3).