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Back to Subjects - Psychology

Prisoners of Silence

Prisoners of Silence Belief perseverance is defined by Meyers as “Persistence of one’s initial conceptions, as when the basis for one’s belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives.” This phenomenon is readily observable and at many times throughout the film Prisoners of Silence. It can be observed in the man who discovered facilitated language, parents of autistic children, teachers, facilitators and even in the view of the film. The video begins by introducing a revolutionary new possibility in the understanding of what autism is and how to approach those persons afflicted. Through a technique called “facilitated language” many autistic children were seemingly freed from the inability to communicate. Many were able to “speak” freely through a letter keypad with the help of a facilitator or guide. There are stories upon stories of success - of students, teachers, families, etc. But the success couldn’t last. Things truly were too good to be true. As we saw, red flags were being thrown up all over the place. The evidence was growing overwhelmingly that the words being attributed to the patients were, in fact, the words of the facilitators. Study after study confirmed this suspicion. Patients could not identify objects not also in view of the facilitator; they could not communicate at all without facilitator guidance. The patients never needed to be taught language. Could that be possible? How is it that patients could type so clearly without ever looking at the keypad? The questions kept on coming. First of all, despite the evidence, very few were convinced that facilitated speech could be untrue or ineffective. An interview with the founder is the strongest example of belief perseverance in the film. Although he is aware of the overwhelming evidence that his technique is faulty (the basis for his belief has been discredited), Dr. Biklen is quite capable of reasoning why it may still be true. For example, when presented with the data collected by a double-blind study he has the following reasons it may have turned up such negative results: a “test” is a confrontational situation and the patients may have been uncomfortable “proving themselves.” He said it is possible that patients and/or facilitators may have frozen when asked to perform for researches. He also claimed that many patients experience severe “word forming” problems. By this he meant that, although the patient may recognize the object, he may be unable to retrieve its name from memory. Each of these could be true. However, to a person looking objectively, Dr. Biklen is clearly attempting to justify a persistent belief. Many parents had stories about children using facilitated speech. One woman believes despite evidence because she has seen her daughter make up words for objects she doesn’t know the name. Her belief has been discredited, but she has found a reason it might be true. Another concept illustrated is that of the Confirmation Bias. It is defined as “a tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions” and is very similar to belief perseverance in the case of Prisoners of Silence. In this case, the participants of facilitated speech are much more inclined to verify instead of disprove their belief that it is an effective tool for working with autism. The strongest example of this is illustrated by one of the teacher/facilitators interviewed in the film. After having had all her facilitators tested and evidence completely proved the communication to be one-sided, she was able to admit that she had seen signs that it was possibly unreal. She was not able to admit it. Instead, she began looking for further verification. She was obviously able to find a sufficient amount for her to no longer concern herself with the hints she had observed. Another example of the confirmation bias can be seen when it is pointed out to Biklen the obvious inconsistency of autistic patients who are able to type clearly, using one finger, without ever looking at the keypad. It is clear when observing a facilitator and patient that, although the patient may never even glance at the letters, the facilitator’s eyes never leave. While Biklen agreed that this is impossible, when interacting with patients, he did not seem notice or care when they did not look at the keys. Even though there is often this direct evidence to disprove the communication, Biklen and other facilitators do not recognize it as such. Their tendency is to seek out and observe only evidence in favor of facilitated speech. The confirmation bias is again visible. Although I found no solid linking statement in the text, it seems these concepts bay be related to cognitive dissonance. As those involved with facilitated speech were exposed to studies disproving it, a large amount of cognitive dissonance was surely felt. The conflicting ideas are the scientific facts disproving facilitated speech and the belief by individuals that they have seen it work. In order to reconcile the conflict and ease the dissonance, the people in the examples given have begun to use both the confirmation bias and belief perseverance. While neither of these fallacies are consciously chosen, each allows the experienced dissonance to be eased. It is clear that the film Prisoners of Silence holds many illustrations of concepts explained by Social Psychology. While the examples of belief perseverance and the confirmation bias are specifically pointed out here, one could find numerous others. This shows that one can examine situations and events occurring around and within one’s own life and see Social Psychology at work. Bibliography:

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