Crowd Control

Production Details

What if we could curb America’s speeding epidemic without issuing a single ticket? Or stop jaywalking by making it worth the wait at the crossing?

Crowd Control is a 12-part series which reveals that sometimes all you need is a little science to make the world a better place. Best-selling author and behavior change expert Daniel Pink uses behavioral science in a series of experiments that show how the power of persuasion can reduce stress, minimise annoyances, improve health and increase happiness. Using hidden cameras to record his results, Pink tackles the seemingly impossible task of righting everyday wrongs — from convincing partygoers to clean up their streets to stopping the senseless rush at an airport baggage claim.

With 20 years of experience studying why we do the things we do, Pink draws on academic theories and enlists an elite team of designers, builders and technologists to change bad behavior into good. Using the power of guilt, fear, shame and outright lying, Crowd Control shows social behavior in fun and eye-popping ways that have real-life applications. He introduces targets in men’s restrooms to reduce cleaning bills, lies to the elderly to make them stronger and scares the pants off air travelers to reduce their chances of death.

Scientifically based but shamelessly entertaining, Pink travels the around the USA to catch unsuspecting members of the public in the act — from Brooklyn, where he calms a long line of patrons waiting to get into a popular pizza joint, to New Mexico, where a “musicalroad” rewards drivers for obeying the speed limit. He also convinces New Orleans revelers to clean up Bourbon Street and corrals oblivious texting pedestrians with a special cellphone lane in Washington, D.C.