WORLD WAR Z- The Scientific Method

 

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

OBSERVATIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTING

SAMRAT CHANNA



THE MOVIE

World War Z (Forster, 2013) is an action-packed thriller, starring Brad Pitt, and his journey to find the origin and cure for the ‘zombie’ virus that has broken out around the world and caused mayhem. The first time you watch this movie, you appreciate the action and cinematography as well as the CGI and performances by the actors. As you watch it repeatedly, the parallels and execution of the scientific method approach, the fallacies involved, and the keen observations made throughout the movie become more apparent. These topics will be the focus of my blog today.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

The Scientific Method can be defined as the procedure employed to formulate a research and test out a hypothesis in a scientific setting (Scientific Method | Definition, Steps, & Application, 2020). Stiles (1942) describes this procedure to be mostly straightforward, involving making meticulous observations, aligning them in a methodic manner, and drawing conclusions. However, going beyond the scientific implications and enactment of this process, this methodology is and can be applied by anyone. An infant can apply observational skills from his parents, test it out, confirm or edit their hypothesis and try again if needed.

The success of applying this method in a more professional setting, requires keen and repetitive analyses, observations, hypothesis formulation as well as ingenuity and cogency (Gauch Jr & Gauch, 2003). It is certainly not a linear approach, requiring loops between each of the steps till progress is made. In the movie, this loop is seen by Brad Pitt constantly making observations as he proceeds with his mission, constructing hypotheses and testing them out. One of his first observations is when he determines the incubation period of the virus to be about 12 seconds. He concludes this by monitoring a young man get bitten and turning into a ‘zombie’ during the first haywire scene of the movie. He takes this very limited information and applies it later on to test his first hypothesis, which is that the virus can be spread through water droplets. When the family is running to the rooftop to be rescued, Pitt encounters one of the ‘zombies’ and gets its saliva in his mouth when pushed to the ground. He then runs to the edge of the rooftop, counting down, expecting himself to turn, and preparing to jump to protect his family. This is an involuntary test of the hypothesis, which he concludes to be false.

OBSERVATIONS

To observe is to magnify all components of the study and question them rigorously (Bogen, 2017). Observations are usually at the forefront of the scientific method, the foundation for the entire process. It starts with defining the problem, this being the outbreak in the movie. The first observation Pitt makes is the incubation period. The second is that transmission is not through droplets. The next few observations are made when he travels to Jerusalem, one being that the creatures are sensitive to sound, in a critical scene of the movie where we witness the crowd singing. The movie is filmed in a manner where we observe these events from Pitt's point of view, a very interesting approach because rather than creating suspense through withholding information from the audience, highlighting the thought process of the protagonist is encouraged! Therefore, a lot of these scenes have parallels with the director focusing on Brad Pitt's concerned face and then the issue or observation at hand. One of my favorite scenes is also the most important observation made in the movie. Running through the streets of Jerusalem, Pitt observes that the zombies seem to be avoiding a few people. First an old man and then a young, sickly-looking teenager. 





‘What do they have in common?’, both Pitt and the audience question. That question is answered when Pitt shares his final hypothesis with the health professionals at the World Health Organization (WHO).

HYPOTHESIS 

A hypothesis is an indefinite and demonstrable statement that tries to explain circumstances (Strode, 2015). The buildup prior to Brad Pitt announcing his final hypothesis, after all the observations and questioning he did throughout the movie, provides a satisfactory end to a back and forth that the audience experienced along with him. He states that terminal illnesses were a form of camouflage from the creatures because they needed healthy hosts to spread the infection. Using treatable pathogens to infect oneself would result in temporary invisibility from the zombies. This can be categorized as a directional hypothesis. According to the American Psychological Dictionary, the directional hypothesis states that changes made to the Independent Variable (in this case the health of the human body) will have an impact on the Dependent Variable (visibility). Therefore, injecting a deadly pathogen into a human body would decrease chances of visibility and ultimately death.

FALLACIES

It is not surprising that a movie trying to pose as scientific (showing scientists and professionals trying to generate a hypothesis multiple times) while simultaneously talking about a zombie apocalypse would be fallacious in some way. One of the biggest fallacies that stood out to me instantly was the fact that all the people Pitt observes or test his final hypothesis on, are all male. Therefore, he is generalizing a finding on the entire population. A Biophysicist, Scott Forth (2013), talks more about these fallacies, mentioning how the infection timing seems farfetched because it takes at least a minute for blood to fully circulate in the body. This leads up to another fallacy in Pitts observations in general, as they always seem to be during chaotic situations and cannot be trusted due to other variables that might be affecting his senses during those times. The scientific method in itself is also controversial as people view it as too simplistic or in some situations too inflexible to be applied to scientific or real-life situations (Watson & James, 2004).

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

All of this observation and analysis are finally taken to the experimentation part of the scientific method where Pitt and two of his companions set out to find the pathogen in the B-Wing of the building. They apply all of the previously learned conclusions: not to agitate the creatures with loud sounds, protect the flesh of their arms with magazines because the virus is spread through a bite and finally, we watch Pitt infect himself under the careful watch of a previously renowned doctor at the organization. 


We wait till Pitt is brave enough to step outside of the protection of the glass walls. He alerts all the creatures as they come running towards him, leaving the exit area. The hypothesis is accurate, we conclude, as the creatures bypass him.



References:
  • APA Dictionary of Psychology. (n.d.). American Psychological Association. Retrieved November 3, 2020, from https://dictionary.apa.org/directional-hypothesis
  • Bogen, J. (2017, March 28). Theory and Observation in Science (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/science-theory-observation/
  • Gauch Jr, H. G., & Gauch, H. G. (2003). Scientific method in practice. Cambridge University Press. Scientific method | Definition, Steps, & Application. (2020, January 16). Encyclopedia Britannica.
  • Stiles, K. (1942). What Is the Scientific Method? Bios, 13(1), 13-20. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4604621
  • Strode, P. (2015). Hypothesis Generation in Biology: A Science Teaching Challenge & Potential Solution. The American Biology Teacher, 77(7), 500-506. doi:10.1525/abt.2015.77.7.4
  • The Scientific Method: Steps, Examples, Tips, and Exercise. (2017, October 5). [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi0hwFDQTSQ&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop%27
  • Watson, S., & James, L. (2004). The scientific method: Is it still useful? Science Scope, 28(3), 37-39. Retrieved November 5, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43183630
  • World War Z (2/10) Movie CLIP - 12 Seconds to Infection (2013) HD. (2016, August 9). [Video]. YouTube.

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