Slender Man
Stabbings: Looking through the Lens of Neuroscience
By Shannon O'Sullivan
Violence
has always been a tantalizing drug to the public, with the most memorable
instances gaining their salience from their atypical circumstances and inhumaneness.
In May 2014, the story that captured the eyes of the world is known as the
Slender Man Stabbing.
Morgan
Geyser and Anissa Weier—two 12 year old girls from Wisconsin—lured their friend
into the woods for a game of hide-and-seek, only to stab her 19 times and leave
her to die. According to CNN’s release of the Slender Man interrogation tapes
on Anderson Cooper 360, the victim crawled her way out of the forest and
miraculously lived, despite the fact that one stabbing came so close to her
heart that “she was 1mm away from certain death (Cooper). The girls had been
plotting their attack for months, and are being charged as adults for first
degree murder. Why did these young girls try to kill their friend? The answer
the girls gave was that they wanted to prove themselves worthy of Slender Man:
a faceless boogeyman of the Internet.
Somewhere
along the way after Geyser and Meier came across the Internet born-and-bred
legend Slender Man, the boundaries between reality and fantasy all but
dissipated. According to Newsweek’s The
Girls Who Tried to Kill for Slender Man article by Abigail Jones, since the
girls believed Slender Man to be real, they wanted to prove themselves worthy
of him as his “proxies” (Jones). The
girl’s belief in this “modern day, tech-fueled folklore” (Jones) appears
indisputable, but besides their distorted view on the reality of Slender Man,
they seem to possess an otherwise rational method of thinking. Geyser and Meier
plotted the attempted murder, created a list of items necessary to carry out
the task, were persuasive enough to gain the girls trust, knew that taking
another person’s life was technically wrong, and were aware of the consequences
(Cooper). Hence, the better question to ask ourselves is not why they attempted
to kill their friend, but how could two 12 year old girls possess the mental
capacity to carry out such an act?
While
the Newsweek article by Jones addresses the incomplete development of an
adolescent’s prefrontal cortex and it’s consequent limitations on critical
thinking and decision making—which is an important component to consider when
Wisconsin charges everyone 10 and older as an adult for cases of first degree
murder—this still is not enough evidence to explain how two girls could stray
so far from societal norms. To further understand these girls and their
actions, we must take a look at the Slender Man Stabbings through the
perspective of neuroscience. The
Psychopath Inside by James Fallon provides an eye opening way to see the
neurological background for psychopathy, and how it can differentiate a
psychopathic murderer from a murder who does not possess all the qualifications
for psychopathy. Fallon is able to interpret the lack of activity or
over-activity of certain brain regions and associate them with behavioral
characteristics, which can show how the abnormalities that are repeatedly found
in psychopath’s brain scans correlate with their behavior. By analyzing the
Slender Man Stabbings through the information and methodology provided by
Fallon, I believe we can attribute the actions of Geyser and Meier to an
underlying neurological susceptibility to psychopathy induced by the
underdeveloped cognitive skills of an adolescent and their susceptibility to
supernatural beliefs and groupthink.
Through
the comparisons of brain scans of a variety of psychopaths, Fallon discovered a
“trademark inactivity in the orbital, ventral, and temporal cortex, as well
as the connective tissue”(The Psychopath
Inside, pg 62). A combination of inactivity in all these regions results in
the typical behaviors which help initially identify a psychopath. Although
there is no formal definition of psychopathy, some of the traits associated
with the term are deceitfulness, lack of remorse, impulsivity, history of
juvenile delinquency, and cold cognition. The one practically uncontested
characteristic which defines a psychopath is “a lack of interpersonal
empathy…they don’t fear consequences the way most people do, and while they may
react to the stress of being caught in a lie or a violent act like anyone
would, some remain cool as a cucumber” (The
Psychopath Inside, pg 16).
Although
no current neurological tests are currently known by the public of Geyser and
Weier, the behaviors which define a psychopathy clearly correlate with what we
know about the girl’s actions. Evidently, Geyser and Weier were cunning
enough to have lured their friend into the woods without any suspicions on her
part of their intentions; the victim even proclaimed that “I hate you! I
trusted you!”(Jones) as they continued to stab her. Geyser blatantly admits to
the police that “it was weird that I didn’t feel remorse”(Jones) and their
impulsive nature shows through their immature, yet chilling accounts of the
stabbing. Weier recalls telling Geyser to “Go ballistic, go crazy”(Jones), and
Geyser described her subsequent actions as “stabby, stab, stab”(Jones).
Apparently, the girls did not fear the consequences of their actions either;
CNN ended the showing of the interrogation tapes with Geyser remarking on the
consequences of her actions, stating that “I knew this would happen. I knew we’d
get in trouble”(Cooper).
And of
course, the trademark lack of empathy appears throughout both Newsweek’s account
of the stabbing and CNN’s showing of the interrogation tapes. The tapes themselves
portray both girls as monotone and aware of their wrongdoing, yet lacking the
innate morals or empathy to fully comprehend the emotional damage they have inflicted.
A psychopathic lack of restraint is seen through another of Geyser’s accounts
of her emotional state during the attack, stating that “I didn’t know what I
did. It sort of just happened. It didn’t feel like anything. It was like air”(Cooper).
Along
with the possibility of neurological psychopathy, the aspects of groupthink
form a common pattern in adolescence and first degree murder. Dr. Harold
Kopiwiez, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, calls peer pressure for
adolescent girls “powerful and can lead to risky choices”(Jones), while Prof.
Kathleen Heide, a professor of criminology who has evaluated 150 juveniles
charged with violent crimes, adds that “kids will do things in groups that they
would never do by themselves…it starts out as talk…and then it gets to a point
where they’re at the cusp, and neither feels like they can back down. Heide’s
idea of how these juvenile crimes work supports the accounts both girls gave on
how each would egg each other on to the next step of the stabbings. Fallon
admits that it is hard to indicate childhood psychopathy, but some trademarks
are that children “show very little fear and can be quite bold”(The Psychopath Inside, pg 102). Even if
these girls prove to not be full-blown psychopaths, the signs of susceptibility
and the challenges of adolescence could possibly explain how such a devastating
phenomenon could occur.
As
shocking as the Slender Man Stabbings may be, it is unreasonable to try any
child 10 years or older as an adult in a criminal court case. At the age of 12,
Geyser and Weier possess neither the cognitive ability nor social experience to
fully understand that their apathetic reactions to murder and belief in the
supernatural are irrational. Facing up to 65 years in prison, it is hard to
imagine these girls coming out more neurologically stable than when they went
in. A number of cases of adolescent premeditative murderers who were given
freedom and anonymity after a relatively short period of confinement and
rehabilitation allowed these people who made grievous childhood mistakes a
second chance. Fallon claims that a psychopath can go for years without
carrying out their destructive tendencies, “but at some point the urge
overpowers all other priorities”(The
Psychopath Inside, pg 205). On this point, I do not believe that Fallon’s
assumption has to apply to these possibly psychopathic adolescents. Proof of a
return to normal life after first degree murder as an adolescent exists, and
the best way to help these children would be to implement a constructive and
short detainment period. One doctor is quoted to have said about Geyser that “she
needs to grow up” after hearing about her delusional beliefs in the
supernatural, and although his statement his highly ignorant and derogatory for
a doctor to make, he is right for the wrong reason. These girls deserve a
chance to grow up and learn from their wrong doings how to become a beneficial
member of society.
The fact
that the victim survived is a miracle, and thankfully a life was saved that
day. However, the possibility still stands that another two girls can have a
second chance as well.
references
Fallon, James H. "Ch.2 Evil Brewing." The
Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey into the Dark Side of
the Brain. New York: Current, 2013. Print.
Jones, Abigail. “The Girls Who Killed for Slender Man”
Newsweek. 13 Aug, 2014. 25 Feb, 2015. http://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/22/girls-who-tried-kill-slender-man-264218.html
Cooper, Anderson. “Chilling ‘Slender Man’ Interrogation
Tapes Released” CNN. 20 Feb, 2015. 25 Feb, 2015. http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/02/20/ac-dnt-kaye-slenderman-interrogation-tapes.cnn
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