Eight Days of Ether: every day a new theme and only 24 hours to submit.

Day 5 – The People Indoors.

‘Boring,’ says The Charlie. He’s The Paul’s opposite but the upshot is the same, pulling the decision away from absolute certainty back to something more lively. He rarely has any ideas of his own though, these are Carole’s prerogative.

Risk, like adventure, is in the mind of the taker. For some of us, a roller coaster ride is beyond our need for excitement but for others, it’s jumping off a platform[1] at the edge of space. Well, maybe just one other! Strangely, risky decisions are more likely to be made by groups despite the fact that the individuals themselves would be more conservative. It’s called the Risky-Shift[2] phenomenon and it shows how extreme views pull other group members along the dimension of risk towards a view they wouldn’t have held otherwise. Usually, this would be an external event – one you can leave if you wish – but what if the debate was taking place within? There is a much debated condition that used to be called multiple personality disorder and now goes by the name divided or dissociative identity disorder. People with this condition are reported to experience multiple personalities often battling for supremacy, some of which actually take over so that the ‘main’ personality has no idea what happened during that time. This story is about what happens when the acutely balanced need for risk that keeps this individual safe is suddenly upset by a new, more extreme entity. Here’s the link

[1] Felix Baumgartner. No, no, no, no, no! http://news.sky.com/story/997627/space-jump-felix-baumgartner-sets-leap-record

[2] Also called group polarisation or cautious shift among other things http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/risky_shift.htm