The Running-Off-The-Cliff Effect

A common convention in animated cartoons—but odd when you think about it—shows a running character race off a cliff and continue to move in a straight line through the air at least a few steps further—as if there is still a horizontal surface beneath his feet.

His progress eventually ceases—that is, he gets a few feet out from the cliff’s edge before coming to a halt—but he continues to stay at the same vertical level as the cliff top he left behind . . . as if he were still on a flat surface.

Pause for a second to ask yourself: When does this happen in reality? Precisely never. In the real world, downward trajectory in response to gravity begins the instant one steps off the cliff.

It’s only when our cartoon figure looks down and registers there’s NOTHING THERE, that he finally begins to plummet. We saw this happen a LOT to Wile E. Coyote, for example.

Another detail that often adds to the comic effect is that, right after the awful truth hits, most of the character’s body will shoot straight down, out of frame, while his head remains stationary in place for another half second or more (thus stretching his neck to an absurd length).

He registers the new reality (maybe even locking eyes with the viewer, as if to say, “Now I see—and recognize—what you already knew”), and when he’s fully cognizant of the new frame of reference . . . only then does his head disappear downward at high speed, perhaps with a sound akin to that of a ricocheting bullet.

When did this convention start? Who decided it would make sense in the cartoon universe, and why?

(Same questions apply to the start of many running scenes in cartoons, in which the character’s legs fly everywhichway or create a circular blur—but he remains in place, without making any horizontal movement for an instant—while bongo pound on the soundtrack, and then he shoots offscreen. Who got paid to pummel those bongos for cartoons?)

I have no idea. But the phenomenon of running off the cliff—of continuing to make forward progress in violation of reality as long as you haven’t openly acknowledged it—has plenty of corollaries in human psychology.

People can regularly be observed to operate as if something is not true as long as they haven’t publicly admitted they’re aware of it. One of the most common is when another driver makes a turn into your right-of-way without looking in your direction: as long as he or she didn’t glance your way, you didn’t exist and she wasn’t taking an unwarranted advantage.

I believe I’ve seen women drivers do this more often, especially in supermarket parking lots. In contrast, a man is more likely to look you in the eye as he violate a traffic regulation in front of you, as if to say, “I’m doing this, and there ain’t nothing you can do about that. Just try and stop me.”

Another example is when a spouse pretends not to be aware that his or her spouse is cheating. Or when parents act as if their teens are not indulging in sex or experimenting with drugs against house rules. As long as the situation doesn’t come out in the open and demand to be addressed, the problem doesn’t really exist, psychologically speaking.

We put ourselves in an increasingly unfortunate position the harder we labor not to “look down,” however. When you know the truth of the matter and persist in not looking—when adding a fairly simple two and two would thereby demand a greater response than you feel like giving the matter—that’s when you risk creating serious trouble for others, and potentially yourself.

This is what makes continued support for the president so puzzling to those of us who could see he was a liar, a con man, a thief, and a bully long before it came to a vote in 2016. Apparently, if his supporters could just look the other way while he:

— bragged about committing sexual assault

— settled a lawsuit for $25 million over his defunct university for scamming students

— made up and repeats a false story about thousands of Muslim-Americans cheering on 9/11

— used his office to profit his businesses, such as overcharging Secret Service agents, who are compelled to accompany him and his retinue, to stay in his hotels

— asserted that even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue, his supporters wouldn’t care

— picked fights with longtime U.S. allies such as Canada and France, while saying he “fell in love” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un

— separated children from families, kept them in cages, and managed to lose track of 1500 of them

. . . then they could continue to pretend he’s a great guy, and not have either to regret having voted for him, or to demand he behave more like an honorable human being and a competent president. Willful blindness allows laziness and inaction.

You really can suspend yourself in the air with absolutely no support, if you just . . . don’t . . . look . . . down.