Friday, February 27, 2015

Slender Man Stabbings: Looking through the Lens of Neuroscience

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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