Dec 7 2005
Paul Rowland,
Western Mail
A new reality show, dubbed "the most audacious practical joke in television history", starts tonight on Ch4. Paul Rowland looks at why none of us are immune from being hit by a hoax
YOU only need to look at the enduring popularity of April Fools' Day as a testament to our love affair with the practical joke.
And while the great spaghetti harvest of 1957 may have fooled a whole generation of Panorama- watchers, the stunt pales in comparison with the scale of the prank due to hit our screens tonight.
Space Cadets will train nine wannabe-astronauts to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the edge of space. But instead of being trained for the launch in a remote part of Russia before making history by being launched into the stratosphere, the unsuspect-ing contestants will remain on British soil inside a disused airbase.
Or, at least, that's the plan. Because if the unsuspecting contestants start to suspect, the elaborately-constructed concept will come crashing down. But will they start to suspect and when?
Paul Seager, an expert in the psychology of deception, claims that because we are mentally programmed to accept the truth, we are left wide open to being hoaxed.
"Generally, we are not very good at detecting lies," he said.
"In most studies, we are about 45% to 60% accurate in spotting them, so on the whole we are no better than chance - we might as well flip a coin.
"We have something called a truth bias. We are constantly bombarded with so much information on a daily basis that we can't possibly make a judgment on each piece on its own merits.
"So what we do is to accept things as the truth, because it's easier, unless we have a good reason to believe otherwise. We only revisit the information if we have a reason to believe that it's not actually the truth."
And because the Space Cadets have no reason to doubt what they've been told, they will believe it, at least for a while.
"These contestants were approached by a perfectly reputable television company - it would have been a chance of a lifetime, and they would have no reason to disbelieve it," he added.
"It's recognised that some people are more suggestible than others.
"There's an element of greed, where people fall for a con, because they don't want to miss out on a big opportunity.
"If we think there's some kind of opportunity, then we want it before everybody else - it's a survival mechanism. In this case, people saw an opportunity to go into space, which could lead to fame and riches, and they wanted to seize it before anybody else had a chance."
Organisers of the programme have spent months painstakingly recreating a Russian space training centre - right down to importing 48 packs of Russian toilet paper and fitting more than 100 Russian plug fittings.
"It's best to keep things believable, and introduce things to people in small steps, and to people who are ready to believe what you are going to tell them, before starting to work your way up," explained Dr Seager.
Another part of the efforts to ensure the programme's makers aren't rumbled involves the secret introduction of three actors into the ranks of the contestants, which Dr Seager believes will help the process run smoothly.
"We are confidence animals, so if we see other people doing something, we are more likely to go along with it, and that's why these actors are so important," he added.
"If the contestants see them doing something, they are less likely to suspect that it's a con.
But will the big hoax actually succeed? Unlikely, says Dr Seager.
"I'd be surprised if they manage to pull it off, because it's such an ambitious project. They will have to be both very, very good, and very, very lucky."
Space Cadets starts tonight at 10pm.
THE makers of Space Cadets will convince nine hand-picked contestants that they are spending two weeks in intensive training at the Space Tourism Agency of Russia, in preparation for a 100km flight up into near-space in the company of two highly trained astronauts.
In reality they will be spending the time on an adapted film set that has previously been used for the making of Space Cowboys and Armageddon, taking in a mixture of real space training and fictional nonsense.
The whole process will be filmed, 24 hours a day, with daily programmes on S4C keeping track of the goings-on at the base. Once the two weeks are up, the contestants, who were selected after detailed psychological testing, will be whittled down to four for the final journey into space. One of those chosen for the final mission will be one of the three actors included in the group to ensure things run smoothly.
After the launch, recreated with some noisy sound and motion effects, the astronauts will finally be able to look out at space - courtesy of graphics three times more defined than the highest-quality TV. Cat litter will be thrown at the mock craft to recreate meteor showers.
Galactic Branson offers space miles to plane passengers
Sir Richard Branson yesterday offered his plane passengers the chance to turn their earth air miles into space miles.
Frequent fliers with Virgin Atlantic will be able to earn enough air miles to qualify for a trip into space with Virgin Galactic - Sir Richard's space tourism company.
At present flights on Virgin Galactic - which is due to start operations in 2008 - cost $200,000 (about £115,000).
Virgin Atlantic passengers could qualify for a space flight by clocking up air miles to the equivalent of 144 upper class trips to New York or 70 upper class trips to Tokyo.
Sir Richard said, "A journey into space seems like a distant dream for many but this deal makes it even more achievable for our frequent travellers to become astronauts.
"We have always tried to offer more unusual and fun rewards, like hot air ballooning and white water rafting, alongside our more conventional awards, but this means our Flying Club rewards are now literally out of this world."
PS. This offer is not a hoax.
