Social Behaviour In BioShock
(Originally submitted April 12, 2021 for class SSCI 1012: Introduction to Psychology II at George Brown College)
Social behaviour follows clear patterns but is also greatly affected by exterior sources. In fiction, this is often shown with negative results. The video game BioShock illustrates this concept through its setting. As the player progresses through the game, they listen and observe many things: abandoned audio diaries of the citizens of the underwater city, announcements and propaganda playlets, and the choices and actions of the leaders. The underwater city of Rapture shows that even in a social setting artificially made to be a “utopia”, the changes in social behaviour seen in the city can follow a natural pattern. It also greatly illustrates how social behaviour can also be manipulated through a highly dystopian lens. This is seen through pre-established person perception biases, cognitive dissonance of the Little Sisters, the presence of authority and forced conformity and obedience, and finally through using media and propaganda to change the attitudes of the citizens.
Everyone who resides in the city of Rapture was hand-picked by its funder, builder, and leader, Andrew Ryan. Andrew Ryan created the idea of the ingroup of “Man” and the outgroup of “Parasite”; by choosing who was granted entry into Rapture, he established all the citizens as “Men” amongst the “Parasites” above the surface that he created Rapture to get away from. With the entire population of the underwater city an ingroup, there needed to be a new outgroup established to continue to divide them. As genetic modification grew rampant in Rapture, those who succumbed to the effects of Plasmids were referred to as “Splicers” and they became the new outgroup. While the term “Splicer” was originally used to refer to anyone who had altered their genetic structure, as people became addicted to Plasmids and ADAM, their minds and bodies began to decay, and these became the true “Splicers”. To further establish “Splicers” as an outgroup, they are the main enemies for the playable character as they traverse through Rapture. The player, seeing the disfigurement and the mental instability of the Splicers, naturally sorts them into an outgroup for survival purposes; “we feel justified in not liking them … or even in some circumstances dehumanizing them” (Weiten & McCann, 2016, p. 571).
When the player comes across a Little Sister for the first time, their guide, Atlas, introduces them bitterly. “You think that’s a child down there? Don’t be fooled. She’s a Little Sister now. Somebody went and turned a sweet baby girl into a monster. Whatever you thought about right and wrong on the surface, well that don’t count for much down in Rapture.” (2K Games, 2007). Little Sisters are young girls who have been genetically altered by being embedded with Sea Slugs that produce ADAM. This symbiotic relationship between the slugs and their hosts changes the girls’ physical appearance as well as making them near invulnerable to harm. The transformed girls are seen with ghoulish complexion, have glowing, yellow eyes, and they speak with a metallic and sinister effect to their voices. They are always seen collecting ADAM from corpses. It is important to note that despite their appearance, Little Sisters still act like normal girls. In an audio diary of from the main geneticist, she says “I find being around them very uncomfortable. Even with those things implanted in their bellies, they are still children. They play, and sing. Sometimes they look at me, and they don't stop. Sometimes they smile.” (2K Games, 2007). The Little Sisters create a tension known as cognitive dissonance, defined as “when related cognitions are inconsistent—that is, when they contradict each other” (Weiten & McCann, 2016, p. 589). Their ghoulish appearance and their attribution with corpses make the citizens of Rapture fear them, but then they exhibit behaviours of normal children, causing confusion. If the player decides to rescue Little Sisters rather than harvest them, they regain the appearance of a normal girl. However, due to their conditioning to gather ADAM, they still do not feel disgust toward corpses and continue to crawl around in the ventilation and act strangely. Despite returning to a normal state, their behaviour still causes cognitive dissonance. While their situation is fictional, the response is a natural part of social behaviour and the concept of attitudes.
As the creator of Rapture, Andrew Ryan places himself as the leader of the city. He utilizes normative influence to conform the people of Rapture to his will when the civil war starts and many begin to follow Frank Fontaine and later Atlas. Normative influence uses people’s fear of negative social consequences to force them to conform to desired social roles (Weiten & McCann, 2016). Ryan accomplishes this by likening supporters of Fontaine and Atlas to the outgroup of “Parasites” he had created. Announcements can be heard when exploring Rapture and they include phrases like “Atlas is a friend of the Parasite. Don’t be a friend of Atlas.” and “Rumor is the tool of the Parasite. Fontaine is dead. Rapture lives.” (2K Games, 2007) Being condemned to the outgroup of Parasite is enough social consequence to influence the unsure citizens to continue to side with Ryan. BioShock’s depiction of obedience is a little more farfetched; Fontaine forces the playable character to obey his will using a Mind Control Plasmid; he accomplishes this through specific phrases which can be seen as conditioning if not for the fictitious methods of imprinting. The Little Sisters are also mentally conditioned to perform their duties as gatherers. It is not explicitly stated how they were conditioned in the game, but it is suggested to be via ADAM and Plasmids.
Probably the most influential and prominent method of changing social behaviour in Rapture comes from media and propaganda. “Rapture’s intact media infrastructure … continues to broadcast despite the chaos and destruction. … Pervasive [loudspeaker] systems, televisual information, and educational programming and graffiti counsel Rapture’s inhabitants through both direct and more mysterious warnings, forecasts, guidance, and opinions.” (Schlott, 2018, p. 233) The fact that the media continues to operate well past the civil war and fall of Rapture is telling to how much Andrew Ryan relies on it for conformity and forcing the change of attitudes of the citizens. The media in Rapture operates through message factor rather than source factor, prioritizing ideas and persuasion. When Frank Fontaine is executed for smuggling, the citizens of Rapture are shocked that Andrew Ryan would allow such treatment. A small skit aired to change their opinions. “Now hold on there, pretty lady. The only people who face capital punishment in Rapture are smugglers, and that's because they put everything we've worked for at risk. Imagine if the Soviets found out about our wonderful city! Or even the U.S. government. Our secrecy is our shield!” (2KGames, 2007). A mixture of gray and black propaganda is used throughout Rapture. Gray propaganda uses information that may not be precise, and the sources may not be known whereas black propaganda spreads fake messages with the intention of spreading lies. (Rusu & Herman, 2018). Many of the public announcements and skits heard are just fabrications skewing the truth to make Andrew Ryan look better and decrease doubt. “…Andrew Ryan didn’t ‘take control’ of anything. … Remember, Mary – doubting the Council only emboldens the bandits!” and “The Little Sisters? Gee! Don’t you know they’re the glue that holds Rapture together?” (2K Games, 2007) are some examples of Andrew Ryan using skits in the Rapture media to change the citizens attitudes toward events in Rapture.
While some aspects of social behaviour are manipulated and forced on the citizens of Rapture, BioShock shows how social behaviour can be changed for the worst. There is a lot of natural bias in the citizens dividing into new ingroups and outgroups; the physical attributes of the Little Sisters causing tension via cognitive dissonance is a natural reaction as well. However, there is a lot of force through authority figures and propaganda to try to mold Rapture to the city the founder Andrew Ryan desires it to be. Overall, the city of Rapture is an interesting setting to observe the patterns of social behaviour.
References
2k Games. (2007). BioShock [Video game]. Irrational Games.
Rusu, M. -L., & Herman, R. (2018). The implications of propaganda as a social influence strategy. Buletin Stiintific, 23(2), 118-125.
Schott, G. (2018). What or who is behind Rapture? Experimentation, social engineering, and bio-hacking in BioShock 2. In F. Parker & J. Aldred (Ed.) Beyond the sea: Navigating BioShock (pp. 223-240) McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Weiten, W., & McCann, D. (2016). Psychology: Themes & variations. Nelson Education.