The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab
has explored various venues using their FieldREG protocol.
Their equipment included a portable REG and software with
data tracking and graphical analysis. A researcher would
take the device to a scheduled event usually with a defined
agenda so that the event could be broken down into sections
for analysis, known as sessions. In this section, we are
going to discuss one such experiment conducted by the
lab: the 10th Annual Conference on Humor and Creativity
in April 1995.
Why a comedic venue? Why not religious, business, etc?
The PEAR lab ran FieldREG experiments in all types of
group environments. To read about all the venues and results,
please read the PEAR publication “FieldREG Anomalies in
Group Situations.” According to the publication, there
was an “informal hypothesis” that humor may generate a
“coherent group consciousness.” Again, interpretation
is still very speculative, but anecdotal reports from
these experiments suggest certain venue characteristics
that might have the greatest results of deviation from
change. Those traits are: “high degrees of attention,
intellectual cohesiveness, shared emotion, or other coherent
qualities.”
It is also important to run the FieldREG equipment during
times of “rest” or “control”, i.e. when the participants
are not engaged in the particular event being measured;
for example, overnight or between sessions. That way,
researchers can compare the FieldREG “active” data against
that of the “control” sessions.
Approximately 1,000 participants attended the humor conference,
which was broken down into 5 keynote presentations and
a number of smaller breakout type sessions. Each day,
the researcher ran the FieldREG equipment in the background
and jotted down notes as to when there was a keynote,
how the crowd reacted (e.g. standing ovations), and any
other comments he or she felt were notable. It is important
to note that PEAR lab researchers were not the only individuals
who did these types of experiments.
For a discussion of the results of the humor conference,
please continue to the “Discussion”
section.
