Review: 'Push' by Derren Brown

by Claudia Bishop



I always love it when my brother comes home in the holidays from University in Lancaster, not only to see him, but he always has something to show me and my family. This Easter holidays he made us watch Derren Brown's “Push”. It was really interesting and I really recommend it for anyone who likes to rethink the way humans are and why we do what we do.

“Push” is all about social compliance; following an unsuspecting man in an experiment about how far we will go to “fit in” in society. It begins with him simply taking orders from the manager of a charity that’s having an event. As the event goes on, the demands get higher, including (spoiler alert) hiding a dead body and eventually pushing a live man off a building to his death.

Social compliance by definition is usually a response or submission made to a particular request. In social compliance, the target usually doesn't realise that they are being brainwashed or made to act in a particular way as it is human nature to do as much as we can to make people like us.


This documentary deals with many different psychological issues worth thinking about; for example, at the beginning a man who works in a bakery is asked to kidnap a baby because he received a call from someone who claimed to be a policeman.

After watching this I began to rethink everything about human nature. Especially what I would do in this situation. I would like to be one of these people who would stand up for themselves  however, I know that in reality this wouldn’t be the case.

I really recommend this documentary, which can be found on Netflix, for everyone who wants a educational



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