''Hjernevask'' ("Brainwash") is a Norwegian

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

about

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

that aired on

NRK1 NRK1 (pronounced as ''"NRK en"'' or ''"- ein"'') is the main television channel of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). History Test broadcasts started on 12 January 1954, regular test broadcasts began on 13 April 1958, and regular bro ...

in 2010. The series, consisting of seven episodes, was created for

NRK The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

and presented by the comedian and sociologist

Harald Eia Harald Meldal Eia (born 9 February 1966) is a Norwegian comedian, and sociologist. In recent years, Eia has also made TV-documentaries and written books. Eia became a household name in Norway in the mid-90s and has since then been one of cou ...

. The series contrasted cultural determinist models of human behavior (also referred to as the Standard social science model) with nature-nurture interactionist perspectives. In support of the cultural determinist perspective it interviewed mainly Norwegian humanities scholars, in particular literary theorist

Jørgen Lorentzen Jørgen Lorentzen (born 4 November 1956) is a Norwegian literary scholar and independent film producer. His research has focused on the representation of men and masculinities in literature, film and popular culture. He became known to a broad aud ...

at the

Centre for Gender Research The Centre for Gender Research (; STK) is a research centre in Oslo, Norway, that is affiliated with the University of Oslo. It was established in 1986, originally named the Centre for Women's Studies, and received its current name in 2008. It was e ...

. Experts interviewed for the series in support of a nature-nurture interactionist perspective included

Simon Baron-Cohen Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen (born 15 August 1958) is a British clinical psychologist and professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge. He is the director of the university's Autism Research Centre and a Fellow of ...

Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychology, cognitive psychologist, psycholinguistics, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psycholo ...

Simon LeVay Simon LeVay (born 28 August 1943 in Oxford, England) is a British-American neuroscientist. He received a bachelor's degree in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge in 1966, a Ph.D. in Neuroanatomy at the University of Göttingen in ...

David Buss David Michael Buss (born April 14, 1953) is an American evolutionary psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, researching human sex differences in mate selection. He is considered one of the founders of evolutionary psychology. Biog ...

, Glenn Wilson,

Robert Plomin Robert Joseph Plomin (born 1948) is an American/British psychologist, geneticist, and professor at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London. He mainly works within behavioural genetics. A ''Review of General Psychology'' survey, publis ...

and Anne Campbell. This ignited a wide public discussion on the subject of the

nature versus nurture Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology and society about the relative influence on human beings of their genetics, genetic inheritance (nature) and the environmental conditions of their development (nurture). The alliterative ex ...

debate, and especially focused on the views expressed by Lorentzen. The entire series has since been released online.

Objectives and awards

Eia and coproducer Ole Martin Ihle have named

's book ''

The Blank Slate ''The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature'' is a best-selling 2002 book by the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, in which the author makes a case against tabula rasa models in the social sciences, arguing that human behavior is ...

'' as an inspiration for the documentary series. The series was a huge success, and Eia was awarded the

Fritt Ord Award Fritt Ord Award consists of two prizes awarded by the Fritt Ord (organization), Fritt Ord Foundation (''Stiftelsen Fritt Ord''). Two prizes are awarded in support of freedom of speech and freedom of expression; the Fritt Ord Award () and the Frit ...

for "having precipitated one of the most heated debates on research in recent times".

Episodes

The producers have made the series available online. Episodes linked in the

external links An internal link is a type of hyperlink on a web page to another page or resource, such as an image or document, on the same website or domain. It is the opposite of an external link, a link that directs a user to content that is outside its d ...

have English subtitles available.

Reception

''Hjernevask'' led to extensive public debate, largely focused on the views expressed in the program by literary scholar

at the

. Lorentzen's description of the research of psychologists

, Anne Campbell and Richard Lippa as "weak science" was strongly criticized by many commentators; biologist Trond Amundsen pointed out that Lorentzen's work was cited less than 30 times in academic literature and responded that "the characteristic 'weak science' would be rude and uncollegial if Lorentzen was a leading international expert and the three researchers were in fact not so meritorious. But all three are meritorious international researchers ..against this background, the statement is just embarrassing."Trond Amundsen
Vitenskap med skylapper
'' forskning.no'', 14 March 2010 Lorentzen accused his critics including "

Ottar Brox Ottar Brox (30 August 1932 – 16 February 2024) was a Norwegian authority in social science and a politician for the Socialist Left Party. He was professor of sociology at the University of Tromsø from 1972 to 1984, and later associate profess ...

, , Stig Frøland, , Tor K. Larsen and others" of being "cowardly hyenas" who have shown "neither insight into nor interest in gender research." Lorentzen also accused series creator Eia of being motivated by a

midlife crisis A midlife crisis is a transition of identity and self-confidence that can occur in middle-aged individuals, typically 45 to 65 years old. The phenomenon is described as a psychological crisis brought about by events that highlight a person's grow ...

. Eia pointed out that Lorentzen has a very limited scholarly impact with few international publications and a very low number of citations, and said that he wouldn't have interviewed Lorentzen for the series if he had known at the time that Lorentzen was "such a low-level researcher."

Jon Hustad Jon Ottar Hustad (25 March 1968 – 12 October 2023) was a Norwegian journalist, writer and lector in history. Hustad was born in Bondalen in Ørsta Municipality. He worked in ''Dag og Tid'' until his time of death. He worked for ''Klassekampen ...

accused Lorentzen of being "blinded by ideology." In response to claims by Lorentzen that NRK had portrayed him unfairly and misrepresented his comments, NRK made all the raw footage available. Lorentzen complained to the

Norwegian Press Complaints Commission The Norwegian Press Complaints Commission () is a complaint commission of Norwegian Press Association. The members of the commission from are (from July 2012 to July 2014):

(PFU). In June 2010 PFU concluded that NRK had not violated press ethics or portrayed Lorentzen in an unfair manner; the chairman of PFU described ''Hjernevask'' as a "solid work" of investigative journalism. Eia received the 2010

Fritt Ord Honorary Award Fritt Ord Award consists of two prizes awarded by the Fritt Ord Foundation (''Stiftelsen Fritt Ord''). Two prizes are awarded in support of freedom of speech and freedom of expression; the Fritt Ord Award () and the Fritt Ord Honorary Award (). ...

for the series. Several years after ''Hjernevask'' aired, it was reported that it has been used in Eastern Europe to promote false claims that all gender studies research in Norway has been closed down in its aftermath; Harald Eia commented that he did not make ''Hjernevask'' for a Hungarian audience, and that he wanted to showcase the arrogance he felt Lorentzen displayed towards other research fields for a Norwegian audience.Slik brukes Hjernevask til å sverte norsk kjønnsforskning
forskning.no

References

{{Reflist

External links

IMDb
* Internet Archive playlist
DailyMotion playlistYouTube playlistHarald Eia's Vimeo playlist
2010 Norwegian television series debuts Norwegian documentary television series NRK original programming Documentary films about science Nature educational television series Science education television series Documentary television series about science Documentary films about race and ethnicity Sexual orientation and science Sociobiology Evolutionary psychology Evolutionary biology 2010 Norwegian television series endings Race and intelligence controversy