Rashomon effect: what is it and how does it affect our perspective?

The Rashomon effect arises when different stories and descriptions give us an overview.

There are many ways of telling the same reality, given that everyone can perceive the world in a radically different way to how the rest of their peers do, giving rise to misunderstandings and multiple visions of the same fact.

And this is what the curious Rashomon effect the curious Rashomon effect, a phenomenon whose origin lies in a film by one of the greatest filmmakers of the twentieth century.who, through his particular film, marked a before and after in the history of cinema.

Let's take a deeper look at this phenomenon, what implications it has beyond the fictional narrative and what importance it has shown to play in fields such as justice and psychology.

What is the Rashomon effect?

The Rashomon effect is a phenomenon that is produced due to the subjectivity and personal perception of each person when describing the same real event. That is to say, it is the fact that several people, who have experienced the same event, try to describe it, but but mixing their perception of what they have lived, which makes each one explain it in his own way, forgetting or exaggerating some aspects of the event.forgetting or exaggerating some aspects or others. Despite the number of versions that may arise, these turn out to be plausible, making it difficult to choose just one.

This effect is very recurrent in narrative, that is, whether in a special episode of a series, part of a movie or chapter of a book, it is very common to find several characters who expose their reality, from their own point of view, which is, as can be understood, totally subjective. Resorting to this type of resource, in which the first-person or omniscient narrator disappears to cede the protagonist role to characters that may be rather testimonial, helps to break the monotony of many fictions.

With the case of the Rashomon effect it is understood that the reality in a given story is something that depends entirely on one's own subjectivityand that factors such as the limitation of the information received, age, gender, memory, the influence of others or someone's beliefs are aspects that influence the way in which a story is relived. The stories told by the characters can be true and, at the same time, apparently incompatible, unless one of them is lying.

Origin of this effect

We owe the name of this effect to Japanese director Akira Kurosawa who, in 1950, presented the film Rashōmon, a film based on two short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. The plot of the film is that of the murder of a samurai and subsequent rape of his wife in 12th century Japan, and how several characters try to find out, through their testimony, who was the real culprit of such a heinous act, before deciding to execute the one who, supposedly, is the material author of the facts.

Throughout the film each character reminisces through flashbacks, presenting stories within stories, and seeing each of them as potentially true, which makes the plot more complicated. Rashōmon shows how all of these stories, from a certain perspective, are something that cannot be taken as untrueThe reality they describe depends on the context, background and conditioning factors of each subject.

Kurosawa's influence on the general culture.

With this way of describing the plot of his film, Kurosawa made his film have an important repercussion all over the world. Moreover, this influence was not only in the world of the arts, but also in the legal field, psychology and philosophy.

With Rashōmon there were many series, films and books that tried to imitate this same style, in which there is no specific narrator. All these stories, combined, allow to have a deep understanding of the real situation.

Just to mention a few series and movies, below we have a list of these fictional works in which the Rashomon effect has been used at some point: How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014), Lost (2004-2010), The Affair (2014), Captives of Evil (Vincente Minnelli, 1952), The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995), Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999), Gosford Park (Robert Altman, 2001), Tape (Richard Linklater, 2001), Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002) and Lost (David Fincher, 2014).

But, as we have already seen, this effect is not only a matter of directors and writers. In the legal field, the Rashomon effect is mentioned when there is a case in which witnesses are indicating testimonies that are either apparently contradictory to each other, or too many things happened to take only one of their stories as valid.

Turning to social sciences, especially social psychology, the term "Rashomon effect" is used to refer to situations in which the importance of a certain event, value or objective, in abstract terms, is not in dispute, but there are various visions or assessments as to why, how, who and what for..

The effect and the media

Although the media try to be platforms whose objective is to describe reality as objectively as possible, the truth is that on many occasions they fail in this attempt. It could be said that their way of seeing things and (why not say it more directly?) their ideology are mixed with the way in which they report a certain fact. It is for this reason that the idea that the media deceive us is very widespread..

Each media outlet approaches the same news story differently, omitting some facts and highlighting some others. This would fall into the category of disinformation, but it serves as a clear example of how capricious the Rashomon effect can be, which can happen without us realizing it.

Given that there are so many media outlets and that each one explains what suits them, it can be understood that there are multiple stories that are broadcast on our television screens, or come to us on the Internet and newspapers, and that, all of them together, would allow us to know with the greatest possible depth what has really happened. Although, of course, this would imply having to review the same news but in several media.

Bibliographical references:

• "The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree", by Karl G. Heider (American Anthropologist, March 1988, Vol. 90 No. 1, pp. 73-81).
• Davenport, C. (2010). "Rashomon Effect, Observation, and Data Generation. Media Bias, Perspective, and State Repression: The Black Panther Party. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 52-73, esp. 55.
• Anderson, Robert (2016). "The Rashomon Effect and Communication." Canadian Journal of Communication. Vancouver Canada (41(2)): 250–265. ISSN 0705-3657
• Davis, Blair; Anderson, Robert; and Walls, Jan, eds. (2015). Rashomon Effects: Kurosawa, Rashomon and Their Legacies. Routledge Advances in Film Studies. Abingdon, ENG: Routledge. ISBN 1138827096. Retrieved 28 September 2016. See also the citation of individual chapters.