June 4, 2020 • 9 mins
Some of the most curious things in the world are people and the way they behave. Today's tour should make that perfectly clear.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. It was September six and brawls had broken
out in multiple areas of New York City, resulting in
a full blown riot. Before it was over, dozens were
injured and required medical treatment. One man had been beaten
(00:50):
so badly that he needed hospitalization. It started three days earlier,
when thousands of teenaged boys stalk through the city, chasing
citizens through the street eats. Smaller gangs of boys would
wait in doorways for unsuspecting victims. Police were dispatched, although
they were greatly outnumbered. They would just manage to break
up a gang in one district, only to discover another
(01:11):
had formed somewhere else, and the cause of all of
it straw hats. You see. In the early twentieth century,
men wore straw hats during warmer months, and then switched
to felt hats when the weather turned chili after a time.
The unofficial date was settled on September fift whereby all
men young and old alike were expected to switch or
(01:33):
be ridiculed. It was a fashion rule, sort of like
not wearing white after Labor Day, only a lot less forgiving.
The act of stomping on hats didn't start out as
something violent, though. It actually stemmed from a tradition among stockbrokers,
a way of having fun with their fellow co workers.
There were rules, though, stealing and smashing the straw hat
(01:54):
of a stranger was strictly forbidden. A straw hat was
popular among New York stockbrokes during the summer to war
during social events. Soon though, they hat became equally popular
among other professions, and the tradition of hat snatching and
stopping spread with it. It became so common, in fact,
that newspapers published a warning each year alerting readers to
(02:15):
the impending fashion faux paw deadline. But in nineteen youths
in New York City decided to get a jump on
the tradition, and one could argue that cool heads didn't prevail.
It wasn't the first time straw hats had caused trouble though.
Back in September of nineteen ten, police in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
were called to safeguard pedestrians still sporting their summer headwear.
(02:38):
The Pittsburgh press complained about the hat smashing ritual, even
predicting that the practice would eventually get out of hand,
which it did in ninety two. The trouble started when
teens began stealing and smashing straw hats from factory workers
in Manhattan. Sometimes they simply knocked the hats off men's head.
Other teens carried sticks with hooks to better grab the hats.
(03:00):
After that, the overly confident teenagers marched to the docks
and tried stealing and stomping the hats off the heads
of dock workers there. But those men retaliated, and an
all out brawl ensued, bad enough to block traffic on
the Manhattan Bridge. The police were forced to pull brawlers
apart and make arrests, all except for boys under the
age of fifteen. That is, their punishment was left to
(03:22):
their parents, many of whom chose a public spanking at
the police station on East one oh four Street. If
any good came from the straw hat riot, it was
that local stores stayed open way past closing hours to
accommodate customers looking to buy the more seasonal and safer
felt hats. Thankfully, no one died that year, but in
nineteen four one man was murdered for wearing a straw
(03:45):
hat past September, which is probably why in nineteen President
Calvin Coolidge blatantly ignored tradition and wore a straw hat
well past the acceptable date. The New York Times ran
a front page headline in the following day featuring a
picture of the president's doing so. Hat stomping died down
after that. During the Great Depression, the half that had
(04:09):
once been popular with stockbrokers became a symbol of the
irresponsible twenties and quickly fell out of style. But that's
to be expected, after all, fashion has always been very
good at changing at the drop of a hat. The
(04:36):
newspaper advertisement read absolutely Free on April six. All anyone
wanting a personalized horoscope had to do was send in
a submission with their name and address, their place and
date of birth, and the answers to a few personal questions.
And the ad was so successful that over five requests fled.
It in after receiving their horoscopes over partis, scipients were
(05:00):
so amazed at the results that they felt compelled to
write in and say so. In fact, nearly everyone said
their horoscope had been uncanny and how it described them
to the tune of accuracy. What the participants didn't know
is that they've been tricked. No, not by taking their
money or by stealing their identity. The advertisement hadn't been
(05:20):
placed with nefarious intent. Instead, the whole thing was part
of an experiment. Dr Michelle go Clean, a psychologist and statistician,
was researching astrology, mostly a study where he set out
to prove that stars in the vast universe had little
to do with someone's fate or personality characteristics. But even
though he set out to discredit horoscopes, he hired a
(05:43):
professional astrologer to assist him with it. Go Clean's test
was based on an American experiment from twenty years earlier.
In that experiment discovered what's become known as subjective validation. Essentially,
it's the idea that people form a cognitive bias when
presented with information that's close to their own values and beliefs.
(06:05):
The theory had first been tested on students. They've each
been given the exact same personality test, but instead of
giving them results based on their answers, he ignored it
and supplied the students with identical data, in this case
a recent newspaper horoscope. Each student then graded the results
on a scale of one to five for how close
they seem to match them personally, one being totally wrong
(06:28):
and five being right, and the results the collective average
came in at four point two. The experiment has been
repeated hundreds of times since, and the average results are
almost always the same. Psychologists and researchers believe that people
are likely to accept broad descriptions or statements when it
comes to their own personalities, even though the same description
(06:51):
or statement is probably true of almost anyone. So why
does this work well? Human nature. We all want to
el that we belong. Our species is hardwired for it.
After all, we want to fit in, and we have
a pretty good idea that certain traits and personalities fit
in better with our peers than others. So when we
(07:11):
read that we tend to seek approval from those we admire,
or that we seek comfort and safety or have unused potential,
or that we are our own worst critic. Well, the
statements almost always sound spot on for most of us,
and because the generalizations are more or less positive, we're
more apt to believe them. On the flip side, we
also tend to rate any negative assessments as less accurate,
(07:35):
no matter how common the traits are among others. According
to psychologists, people sometimes feel so strongly about the results
that they tend to alter their behavior to appear consistent
with these generalizations in hopes that others will then back
them up, Which leads us back to the findings on
that nineteen sixty eight horoscope experiment. While the astrologer created
(07:55):
a generalized horoscope for the ninety eight experiment, it was
at random. He'd been hired to specifically create an astronomical
reading of a real, actual person. And what exactly did
that personalized reading? Say? That the individual was intelligent, warm, ingenious,
and had good judgment. It also stated that they had
(08:16):
complete dedication to others. In this case, the real life
person was a doctor who had served during World War One,
so that makes sense. Here's the thing, though, this doctor
wasn't even alive at the time the horoscope was written,
having been dead since nine and his cause of death
execution after being convicted of killing twenty three victims. And
(08:40):
while his name was technically Marcel Petieu, most today simply
referred to him as doctor Satan. So the next time
you read a horoscope and feel as if it was
written specifically for you, take it with a grain of salt.
After all, you might just be in bad company. I
(09:02):
hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
(09:24):
you can learn all about it over at the World
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. It was September six and brawls had broken
out in multiple areas of New York City, resulting in
a full blown riot. Before it was over, dozens were
injured and required medical treatment. One man had been beaten
(00:50):
so badly that he needed hospitalization. It started three days earlier,
when thousands of teenaged boys stalk through the city, chasing
citizens through the street eats. Smaller gangs of boys would
wait in doorways for unsuspecting victims. Police were dispatched, although
they were greatly outnumbered. They would just manage to break
up a gang in one district, only to discover another
(01:11):
had formed somewhere else, and the cause of all of
it straw hats. You see. In the early twentieth century,
men wore straw hats during warmer months, and then switched
to felt hats when the weather turned chili after a time.
The unofficial date was settled on September fift whereby all
men young and old alike were expected to switch or
(01:33):
be ridiculed. It was a fashion rule, sort of like
not wearing white after Labor Day, only a lot less forgiving.
The act of stomping on hats didn't start out as
something violent, though. It actually stemmed from a tradition among stockbrokers,
a way of having fun with their fellow co workers.
There were rules, though, stealing and smashing the straw hat
(01:54):
of a stranger was strictly forbidden. A straw hat was
popular among New York stockbrokes during the summer to war
during social events. Soon though, they hat became equally popular
among other professions, and the tradition of hat snatching and
stopping spread with it. It became so common, in fact,
that newspapers published a warning each year alerting readers to
(02:15):
the impending fashion faux paw deadline. But in nineteen youths
in New York City decided to get a jump on
the tradition, and one could argue that cool heads didn't prevail.
It wasn't the first time straw hats had caused trouble though.
Back in September of nineteen ten, police in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
were called to safeguard pedestrians still sporting their summer headwear.
(02:38):
The Pittsburgh press complained about the hat smashing ritual, even
predicting that the practice would eventually get out of hand,
which it did in ninety two. The trouble started when
teens began stealing and smashing straw hats from factory workers
in Manhattan. Sometimes they simply knocked the hats off men's head.
Other teens carried sticks with hooks to better grab the hats.
(03:00):
After that, the overly confident teenagers marched to the docks
and tried stealing and stomping the hats off the heads
of dock workers there. But those men retaliated, and an
all out brawl ensued, bad enough to block traffic on
the Manhattan Bridge. The police were forced to pull brawlers
apart and make arrests, all except for boys under the
age of fifteen. That is, their punishment was left to
(03:22):
their parents, many of whom chose a public spanking at
the police station on East one oh four Street. If
any good came from the straw hat riot, it was
that local stores stayed open way past closing hours to
accommodate customers looking to buy the more seasonal and safer
felt hats. Thankfully, no one died that year, but in
nineteen four one man was murdered for wearing a straw
(03:45):
hat past September, which is probably why in nineteen President
Calvin Coolidge blatantly ignored tradition and wore a straw hat
well past the acceptable date. The New York Times ran
a front page headline in the following day featuring a
picture of the president's doing so. Hat stomping died down
after that. During the Great Depression, the half that had
(04:09):
once been popular with stockbrokers became a symbol of the
irresponsible twenties and quickly fell out of style. But that's
to be expected, after all, fashion has always been very
good at changing at the drop of a hat. The
(04:36):
newspaper advertisement read absolutely Free on April six. All anyone
wanting a personalized horoscope had to do was send in
a submission with their name and address, their place and
date of birth, and the answers to a few personal questions.
And the ad was so successful that over five requests fled.
It in after receiving their horoscopes over partis, scipients were
(05:00):
so amazed at the results that they felt compelled to
write in and say so. In fact, nearly everyone said
their horoscope had been uncanny and how it described them
to the tune of accuracy. What the participants didn't know
is that they've been tricked. No, not by taking their
money or by stealing their identity. The advertisement hadn't been
(05:20):
placed with nefarious intent. Instead, the whole thing was part
of an experiment. Dr Michelle go Clean, a psychologist and statistician,
was researching astrology, mostly a study where he set out
to prove that stars in the vast universe had little
to do with someone's fate or personality characteristics. But even
though he set out to discredit horoscopes, he hired a
(05:43):
professional astrologer to assist him with it. Go Clean's test
was based on an American experiment from twenty years earlier.
In that experiment discovered what's become known as subjective validation. Essentially,
it's the idea that people form a cognitive bias when
presented with information that's close to their own values and beliefs.
(06:05):
The theory had first been tested on students. They've each
been given the exact same personality test, but instead of
giving them results based on their answers, he ignored it
and supplied the students with identical data, in this case
a recent newspaper horoscope. Each student then graded the results
on a scale of one to five for how close
they seem to match them personally, one being totally wrong
(06:28):
and five being right, and the results the collective average
came in at four point two. The experiment has been
repeated hundreds of times since, and the average results are
almost always the same. Psychologists and researchers believe that people
are likely to accept broad descriptions or statements when it
comes to their own personalities, even though the same description
(06:51):
or statement is probably true of almost anyone. So why
does this work well? Human nature. We all want to
el that we belong. Our species is hardwired for it.
After all, we want to fit in, and we have
a pretty good idea that certain traits and personalities fit
in better with our peers than others. So when we
(07:11):
read that we tend to seek approval from those we admire,
or that we seek comfort and safety or have unused potential,
or that we are our own worst critic. Well, the
statements almost always sound spot on for most of us,
and because the generalizations are more or less positive, we're
more apt to believe them. On the flip side, we
also tend to rate any negative assessments as less accurate,
(07:35):
no matter how common the traits are among others. According
to psychologists, people sometimes feel so strongly about the results
that they tend to alter their behavior to appear consistent
with these generalizations in hopes that others will then back
them up, Which leads us back to the findings on
that nineteen sixty eight horoscope experiment. While the astrologer created
(07:55):
a generalized horoscope for the ninety eight experiment, it was
at random. He'd been hired to specifically create an astronomical
reading of a real, actual person. And what exactly did
that personalized reading? Say? That the individual was intelligent, warm, ingenious,
and had good judgment. It also stated that they had
(08:16):
complete dedication to others. In this case, the real life
person was a doctor who had served during World War One,
so that makes sense. Here's the thing, though, this doctor
wasn't even alive at the time the horoscope was written,
having been dead since nine and his cause of death
execution after being convicted of killing twenty three victims. And
(08:40):
while his name was technically Marcel Petieu, most today simply
referred to him as doctor Satan. So the next time
you read a horoscope and feel as if it was
written specifically for you, take it with a grain of salt.
After all, you might just be in bad company. I
(09:02):
hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
(09:24):
you can learn all about it over at the World
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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