A samurai is found dead. Four eye-witnesses come forward to tell their version of events, but their stories contradict one another. What’s going on?
This is the premise at the centre of the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s classic film Rashomon (1950), which is based on two short stories by the Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. However, the notion that many seemingly reliable observers could be convinced that they each saw something very different is more than just an inventive plot device. As this TED-Ed animation explores, what’s become known as the ‘Rashomon effect’ has, time and time again, reared its head in psychological studies, showing how hidden factors including biases can influence one’s view of reality. And, beyond the Rashomon effect’s important practical implications for law, psychology and even science, it also raises even deeper philosophical questions about the concepts of reality, knowledge and truth.
video
War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
video
Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
video
Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes
video
History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
video
Cognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
4 minutes
video
Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
video
Art
Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer
17 minutes
video
Anthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 minutes
video
Metaphysics
What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?
55 minutes