Will Smith Source: TechCrunch/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 “I was so confused. Dr. G, can you please explain the psychology behind what happened at the Oscars?”
This student's plea is music to a psychologist’s ears. It's probably a sentiment echoed by thousands or millions of others who watched Will Smith slap Chris Rock at the Oscars.
Many insightful commentaries have focused on what the Slap means for men, Black men, women, Black women, comedians, celebrities, and society. But there is not enough discussion about why the Slap happened.
The Reasons Behind the Slap
The explicit proximal cause seems clear. Comedian Chris Rock made a joke in bad taste in reference to Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Smith got angry, walked on stage, and slapped Rock. Chris insulted Jada; Will punished Chris.
While this narrative is a good start, it does not explain why Smith would perform such a socially unacceptable and inappropriate behavior—notwithstanding a form of physical violence—in such a public forum. In fact, the forum itself, with its cameras everywhere, may have played a large part in the story.
Psychological science has a rich history and demonstrates that behavior is complex. "Smith was angered and so he slapped Rock" provides just one reason for the behavior. What else is going on?
One of the key learning outcomes of an introductory psychology class gives us the guidelines to figure it out. Something we all need to remember in order to better understand our behaviors is that they are influenced by psychological, biological, social, and cultural factors.
The many well-written pieces by journalists such as Maureen Dowd and authors such as Roxanne Gay provide us with many of the cultural elements that could help explain why Smith did it. Perhaps there was the expectation that men should protect their wives (which suggests that Jada could not defend herself). Perhaps Smith was playing into stereotypes of men who don't "take insults quietly." These cultural stereotypes of what makes a man are in serious need of changing as our understanding of gender changes—but they could still have been an implicit motivator for Smith’s actions.
The Role of Cognitive Dissonance
The psychological reasons are even more tantalizing to explore. After Smith first laughed at the poor joke, it is possible that he experienced a large dose of cognitive dissonance. First explored by the psychologist Leon Festinger, cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling we experience when two of our thoughts are not balanced.
In this case, Smith has a few thoughts to balance: Rock just insulted my wife and I am laughing. Laughing suggests he is fine with the insult—clearly, an unsettling thought. But this may have changed when he saw Jada’s displeased reaction. Now, he may have had additional imbalanced cognitions: I am laughing and Jada is upset. In order to reduce the dissonance, he may have opted to perform a behavior in line with his being not OK with the joke, in contrast to his laughter. In fact, his first reaction—to laugh—may have made the need for action stronger to make himself look better.
Personality Traits, History, and Other Social Factors
There are other psychological precursors to action, too. Personality traits, for example, can predispose one to violence. Similarly, past experiences with violence can also make one more prone to violence. While I don't know Will Smith’s personality measures, reports of what he shares about himself in his recent memoir suggest personality characteristics and past experiences that could explain his losing control. He supposedly has a history of verbal jousting with Chris Rock, too.
THE BASICSSocial factors also could play a role. This joke was not in a small personal conversation or an intimate gathering. The joke was on live television beamed to millions of viewers and in a large auditorium packed with people. Crowds and an audience do things to our behavior. The social psychologist Norman Triplett found that the mere presence of others can change our behavior.
In his studies in the late 1800s (1898, to be exact) he built on his observations of bicyclists riding faster when in company. Company causes physiological arousal which can increase competition. It is likely that being at the Oscars with a large real and imagined (on the air) crowd increased Smith’s physiological arousal and made him more likely to be violent when provoked.
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The Best Ways to Manage Anger Of course, it is likely Smith was angry. Anger itself is a perfect example of the interplay of physiological and psychological factors. Most often instigated by perceptions of threat but also piggybacking on shame or other related emotions, anger is a stressor. In response to stressors, our hypothalamus—a small but very important part of our brains—activates the adjoining pituitary glands, which in turn send signals to our adrenal glands. Our sympathetic nervous system also gets turned on, speeding up breathing and blood circulation and slowing down digestion. We get prepared to fight, flee, or freeze; it is clear which of the three Will Smith went with.
The Slap was very dramatic. Will Smith is an actor who has starred in many movies that involve violence and aggression and have many of the themes roiling here. When we play certain parts over and over again, it is possible that we are more likely to play those parts when the situation seems to warrant it. In many ways, what played out was reminiscent of a scene from a period piece film where the traditional and old-fashioned gender roles have the male slapping the face of the man who insults the family honor. Life imitated art.
Regardless of the cause, whether psychological, biological, social, or cultural, the Slap was a violent action and cannot be condoned. Beyond discussing the implications of the Slap, what we can and should do is try to understand more of why such acts of violence take place. While a far cry from the violence in Ukraine, actions like the Slap are examples of the pervasive acts of aggression and abuse that physically and mentally harm millions daily.