Nobel Committee to Manually Adjust Laureates' Feelings During Acceptance Speeches
Having honored three scientists for showing how nerve cells shape emotion, organizers say they might as well put the discovery to immediate use.
The committee behind this year's prize for research into how nerve cells shape feelings has confirmed it will trial the winners' own signal-switching technique on the winners, live, at the ceremony.
According to planning documents, a small control panel will sit beside the podium, allowing an official to nudge each laureate's expression toward "humbled," "visibly moved," or "gracious but not smug" as needed, depending on how the speech is going.
"We've found that gratitude reads better on camera when it's consistent," said a committee spokesperson, before excusing themselves to recalibrate a laureate who had drifted into looking merely pleased.
Organizers insist the system will only be used for the duration of the applause, after which laureates will be returned to whatever feelings they were having on their own before they walked onstage.
A follow-up session is reportedly being scheduled to determine who gets to hold the control panel next year.