100 Humans, released in March 2020, is a surprisingly funny and engaging reality series that follows one hundred people as they undergo a range of tests and experiments.
100 Americans from all different backgrounds, ages, races, and genders have volunteered their time in a bid to really find out the answers to some of life's most commonly asked questions.
The show is hosted by three presenters, Alie Ward (Brainchild), Zainab Johnson (Upload) and Sammy Obeid. Together they run the tests and provide some very funny social commentary in the background.
So what is 100 Humans trying to achieve? First off, it's not a particularly deep scientific study, it's more of a fun set of tests designed to both entertain and inform. Most are pretty superficial like ‘What makes us attractive' or ‘Are we unconsciously biased'. They are certainly interesting, if devoid of all science. That said, the show isn't aiming for Nobel prize. It's simply entertaining.
Each episode starts with the 100 Humans gathered together, each standing in a square. From there their first challenge begins. For example, they are all asked questions with the results then used as the basis for the episode's theme. So with a show of hands, they get asked if they believe they have a better memory than the other 99 humans. Then they get broken into groups and take part in some fun games to see which age group has the best memory and so on…
The thing about 100 Humans is that if you expected it to be grounded in any scientific basis whatsoever, you will be disappointed. The tests are largely fun games that would never be used to determine any real outcomes. That said, some of the stuff is very interesting and you can play along at home.
As a scientific show, 100 Humans misses the mark completely. However, if you want to be entertained and mildly intrigued, then it is actually quite a good watch. The three hosts are funny and witty and the participants all seem quite honest with their opinions so don't dismiss it entirely. It's a no for science but a yes for entertainment.
Melis
This show was painful to watch. They fall far short of giving their hypotheses any justice. The “communication” challenge that they did within different age groups really got me. They chose five communicators for each age group, which essentially means that these five people are the subjects of their supposedly powerful research. They realized their mistake when one communicator single-handedly ruined their entire group’s performance. Although the show claims to have a participant pool of 100, a look at the experiments themselves shows otherwise. The data gathered is an average of the performance scores of around six random people who were constantly bombarded with ridiculous confounds like personally knowing one another. Besides those flaws, the experiments were simply uninspiring and confusing. Maybe one shouldn’t anticipate any scientific value from such a show. Even still, I would have liked them to make it clear that the sole purpose of the show is entertainment, and that what they are doing is not at all experimental research.
Marcie Kelley
Body language! They have men and women with same scenario…. Different body language.
Again…. White/black Men holding hand guns vs cell phones with different body language and different color of shirts! Results were swayed because of this. Body Language and a red shirt!!! Seriously… common sense!
Pull racist card
Marcie Kelley
Also…. You put 100 people together to get to know each other…. Ummm… I’m going to people please and be more open minded after “making friends” with humans around. This is getting worse each episode . I love the theme and idea… but be correct with test and results. I love making my brain awaken and aware of life. Be real with this.
Moe
I am really enjoying this show. I am on season episode 7 talking about bottled water and tap water. They are claiming that in USA 99.2% of the population has access to clean tap water: “…are virtually identical in terms of purity and taste !!! I wish that was the case, but it is NOT TRUE !! (on minute 27.47) . I live in Discovery Bay, California. We are dealing with terrible hard water (calcification). Every household here uses some type of water softener !
Also, their psychologist are like Monday quarterback ! Naturally, if I l take a look at results of each test, I would be able to explain the results as well. So far, it has been fun to watch this series 🙂
Eric
Their “experiments are highly flawed and would be rejected by any real scientific community. This article give the disclaimer that the experiments are not rooted in deep science and more of a “fun” set of tests? How is manipulating variables and watching people pretend to shoot a black guy over and over and over to the point where one girl breaks down crying fun? Holy cow, the irony of these biased “experiments” being used to prove bias should not be lost on anyone.
Sra
Did you not listen to the ending of that one?
tkrdhd
I’m only on episode 5 but I agree as far as episode 4 Are You Biased. They basically say everyone is biased because they shot the black guy rather than the white guy when they both jumped out. The guy is wearing a bright red shirt! I mean, come on! You’re on high alert and two people jump out…one white dude wearing a subtle green shirt and another black dude wearing a bright red shirt…which is going to catch your eye first?! Duh…the bright red shirt. I’m sorry but the experiment had nothing to do with skin color. Not saying there isn’t bias out there, but put the people in the same clothes then tell me the numbers.
Sonya
I totally agree. Red is the color of danger. I think they all should have been wearing the same outfit for the experiment to work.
Trigger
The biggest thing that I didn’t like about that “experiment” were their shirt colors. Red is typically a color that represents danger or an error. Green represents good / success. The black fella had a red shirt on and the white fella had a green one on. Should’ve been neutral colors. Not to mention their sample size of 100 humans. lol
Kathy
The black guy also had a hat on. I need to go back and rewatch, but my husband said in the one before, they had one person with a gun and one with a phone. He said in the second one, the black guy jumped out second, after they already cleard the guy with the phone, so he should have been the one with the gun. They thought there was one with a phone and one with a gun like before.
Rachel Hutton
We stopped watching this show, after episode 2. They had a highly misandrist study, arguing that men are more stupid. This is no different from what men said about women in the 1950’s. If the misogyny of the past is unacceptable, so is the misandry of this present day of age.
Sepi
thanks i wanted to kill them as they are shallow baseless thanks god some one understand me waste of budget
Juan
I’m trying to see the show in Spanish but background English it’s to loud 🤦🏻♂️
Jowna Sadski
As a human who has specialized in weapons, I have to say that the Season 1: Episode 4 test on firing at JP,”the black man”, is very biased in the set up, therefore the experiment subconsciously swayed the results. Your eyes, brain, etc. are automatically drawn to red and bright colors. When rewatching and rewatching, you will see that the “black people” were wearing red shirts and which subconsciously pulling your attention to whomever that person is. A more accurate test, would have everyone dressed the same. On other experiments there are certain “keywords” said that subconsciously sway decisions prior to ther experiment (ex: the doll experiment).
Anonymous
Yep – it looked almost like the biases were purpose built into the “experiments” to get the desired outcome. I noticed the black gun/cell phone actor also took more of a shooting stance while the white guy more of a selfie taking stance.
Merlin (they/them) Patterson
The show lacks in everything, especially in representation. They don’t show you how the 100 humans are broken down. They just tell you it represents the US. What are the percentages of people by race, by orientation, by any gender (which is not just a binary), etc?
Sra
I thought it might have to do with the red shirt too.
Bernie P Delien
I found 100 Humans to be very bigoted and racist in a reverse sort of way.
In the last episode I watched, they cited an experiment from the 1940s, where 100 children were given a choices of dolls that were identical except for skin color. The offensive part of the show was that the host stated that the white children were called “the bigoted children” and they cited that the “bigoted children”chose the white skinned dolls to play with and they used the term “white bias” to explain it. Problem is, they didnt even mention the results from the black children. The entire show was aimed at the white children and how they were bigoted.
It all seemed like a racially slanted approach and was clearly meant to be overly PC. This show has no rooting in science or unbiased scientific approaches and it is apparently simply entertainment and only serves the purpose of enforcing the host’s and the network’s opinions of themselves.
That was my third, but also my last episode of this farce of a show.
Kathy
It was absolutely racist and horrible to depict the white children with KKK outfits on. They showed the dolls that white children chose, but they didn’t show black children having a choice with black and white dolls or Asian children being able to choose between black, white, and Asian dolls. Children choose the dolls that look like them. I’ve seen black parents say repeatedly how happy their child is to get a doll that looks like them. That doesn’t make them racists. It just means that they would like themselves as a doll. Calling children racist was absolutely horrendous and these people should be called out for it.