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September 24, 2012 2:03 PM   Subscribe

"The psychology of the dare is that the dared person is caught in a double bind. They have the choice of either accepting the dare or appearing as a coward and suffering a social lowering in status. Faced with such a choice, many people accept the dare, attracted as much by the potential kudos as the fear of ridicule."^ Now available in Web 2.0.

(The commercial was made by "Thanks, Smokey!" [previously] producers Zoochosis, which is how I stumbled across moolta.)
posted by maxwelton (19 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Needs a way to filter for double dog dares.
posted by Egg Shen at 2:05 PM on September 24, 2012


This Makes Me Sad for Humanity 2.0
posted by blue_beetle at 2:17 PM on September 24, 2012 [4 favorites]


I see there's money involved. If the goal is to ridicule or shame someone into something, offering money is not the way to do it. As soon as you make it about money, it's a rational transaction that can be declined on a monatary basis with much less recourse. If money is not involved, it becomes solely about pride vs. shame.

I'm reminded of a classic example of this - a daycare started charging parents for being late. Instead of decreasing tardiness, it had the opposite impact - it gave a value to the act and a lot of people were willing to pay for the act. Previously, it was simply embarassing and people were less willing to pay in embarassment.
posted by jimmythefish at 2:18 PM on September 24, 2012 [5 favorites]


They have the choice of either accepting the dare or appearing as a coward and suffering a social lowering in status. Faced with such a choice, many people accept the dare, attracted as much by the potential kudos as the fear of ridicule.

In my life, most dares I've been faced with have involved something stupid or demeaning. My tactic since high school has been to say "what, are you fucking insane? why would you want me to do that? I thought you were my friend." and walk away.
posted by hippybear at 2:33 PM on September 24, 2012 [4 favorites]


I'd rather be a 'coward' than an idiot, any day. Dares are like promises; lagely an indicator that the proposal is unable to stand on its own merits, thus it is shrouded in appeals to emotion / status.
posted by Dark Messiah at 2:44 PM on September 24, 2012 [2 favorites]


*largely.... Damn it.
posted by Dark Messiah at 2:44 PM on September 24, 2012


In my life, most dares I've been faced with have involved something stupid or demeaning. My tactic since high school has been to say "what, are you fucking insane? why would you want me to do that? I thought you were my friend." and walk away.

Yeah, "I'm disappointed to find out you think I'm an idiot" is always a good line. Unless of course the dare is something that I think would be hilarious to all including me if I fail at it. Because I am kind of an idiot.
posted by davejay at 3:00 PM on September 24, 2012


One of the nicest things about being old(ish) is simply not caring if some group of people thinks I'm a "wuss" or whatever.
posted by maxwelton at 3:01 PM on September 24, 2012 [5 favorites]


Man, this is what Shoenice has been dreaming about all this time.
posted by cmoj at 3:12 PM on September 24, 2012


Next up: A web site with an animated rooster that goes "buck-buck-buckaw!", and a caption "What are you? Chicken?".
posted by benito.strauss at 3:14 PM on September 24, 2012


That's a pretty highbrow way to introduce a pretty lowbrow site.
posted by the jam at 4:16 PM on September 24, 2012


One of my aunts, to make money in college, opened a business called "We Do Dares: 25 cents and Up". She was shortly thereafter arrested on suspicion of being a prostitute due to the nature of one of the dares. Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere, but I still have a hard time turning down a dare. I guess it's in my genes.
posted by kamikazegopher at 4:25 PM on September 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


I was hoping that there would be Open Dares that had bounties on them and I could start signing up to take on dares for pay. I was disappointed to find that this was not the case. Apparently I am that kid in elementary school who ate worms for money.
posted by Scientist at 4:27 PM on September 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


I prefer the verbal parry and repost. Most effective counters are combination of direct mockery, of aloof sarcasm with an oblique reference to the sexual improprieties of the challenger's mother, the challenger's intellect or in the case of selected adolescent cultural contexts the challenger's sexuallity. My little brother had so mastered and distilled this to a high art such that during his freshman year of high school when some juniors started trying to bulky him into a dare he was able to respond with the single word, "why" in such a tone that the challenger flipped out, broke a tray and yelled with great menace, "I am not a fag and my mother isn't a whore you little fuck." Following thus outburst the school staff felt the need to insert themselves. The questioning of my brother and other witnesses was like a abbot and Costello routine. Q: What did he say to Glenn? A: Why. Q: you know why, Glenn flipped out he must have said something nasty. A(kid #2): he said why. Q: I told you why, don't talk back to me...
posted by humanfont at 4:39 PM on September 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


I was hoping that there would be Open Dares that had bounties on them

Mechanical Idiot?
posted by jaduncan at 4:57 PM on September 24, 2012


I prefer the verbal parry and repost.
Riposte?
posted by crazy_yeti at 5:09 PM on September 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


metafilter: as ever, the home of the killjoy.
posted by oddman at 5:26 PM on September 24, 2012


Metafilter: I prefer the verbal parry and repost.
posted by ericost at 8:28 PM on September 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Wow. It's like an asshole training program.
posted by MShades at 10:07 PM on September 24, 2012


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