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Madison Meuler

Professor Taylor

Honors 394 A

8 June 2018

Social Inequality and Narrative Interpellation in Black Mirror

Focusing on issues ranging from politics and social phenomena to technology and

medicine, each episode of the renowned anthology series Black Mirror targets one aspect of our

known reality and modifies it ever so slightly. As a work of speculative fiction, Black Mirror

challenges our perception of the world around us by making only subtle changes to our own

familiar society. The subtlety by which it changes reality enhances its role as a work of

speculative fiction, encouraging its audience to question how the seemingly fictional world

depicted in each episode closely resembles the real world in which they reside. Although each

episode touches on a different quality of society, Black Mirror Season 3, Episode 1, “Nosedive,”

speculates a future in which continued reliance on social technologies has fostered a stratified,

hierarchal world. Using this episode as an example of a powerful story of speculative fiction, this

paper will explore how the stories that are told and received in societies dominated by social

technologies exemplify the concept of interpellation outlined in Arthur Frank’s Letting Stories

Breathe. Synthesizing the example of Black Mirror with the work of Arthur Frank, I will argue

that when individuals are interpellated by stories exchanged through social technology and called

upon to adopt certain identities, existing structures of social hierarchy and inequality are

strengthened and maintained.

Prior to exploring how the ideas of Arthur Frank relate to the world of speculative fiction

imagined in the anthology series Black Mirror, it is important to first understand the events and
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characters of Season 3, Episode 1, “Nosedive.” Opening up to a scene of light pink and purple

hues, the episode begins as Lacie, the main character, jogs through her startlingly uniform

suburban neighborhood. While jogging, Lacie uses both hands to scroll through the social media

feed on her phone, swiping past photos posted by each user and ranking each post on a scale of 1

to 5. While running, Lacie encounters a friend who is walking in the neighborhood, and quickly

exchanges a quick “hello.” Following this brief greeting, both Lacie and her friend take out their

phones to rate the interaction, giving each other 5 out of 5 stars. Witnessing Lacie’s actions both

online and in person, it quickly becomes evident that the society she lives is one in which each

and every interaction that takes place both online and in reality is rated on a five star scale. Early

on in the episode, it is revealed that Lacie’s “average” score for each interaction she has held is a

4.232. This average proves to be wildly unstable, as it is skewed upward or downward with each

positive and negative interaction that she has. Within this fictional world, an individual’s score is

widely publicized as each person has received an optical implant that allows them to merely

glance at another individual in order to view their score. Each person’s score is not only

reflective of their ability to have “pleasant” interactions with those around them, but also serves

as a direct reflection of their relative position in their society’s social and economic hierarchy.

The most popular and the most privileged in society are referred to as “upper 4’s,” while others

are referred to as “mid-to-low range folks.” A high score not only endows a person with an elite

status, but also with various privileges, such as the ability to live in certain neighborhoods, drive

certain cars, and work for certain companies.

As we follow Lacie throughout the episode, we watch as she tirelessly attempts to raise

her score above a 4.5 in the hopes of being able to live in the exclusive suburban neighborhood

of “Pelican Cove.” When Lacie is invited to attend the wedding of her distant friend from high
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school, Naomi, who has a score of 4.8, she views it as an opportunity to elevate her own score,

and immediately accepts. On Lacie’s journey to the wedding, her flight gets canceled, which

jeopardizes her chance of attending the event. After yelling at the flight attendant who informs

her of her canceled flight, Lacie is escorted out of the airport by security and receives a full 1

point deduction in her score. With a score of a 3.1, Lacey has trouble renting a sufficient car, has

abrasive interactions with several others, and eventually ends up hitchhiking to her destination

with a truck driver who is a 1.4. Learning of Lacie’s recent drop in score, Naomi quickly

disinvites her from the wedding. Having traveled so far to attend the event, Lacie sneaks into the

wedding anyway and gives an impassioned rant that addresses the superficial and unfair qualities

of their world. As she rants, everyone at the wedding gives her extremely low ratings, dropping

her score close to a 1. Subsequently, Lacie is taken away by security, has her optical implants

forcibly removed, and is placed inside of a jail cell. The episode ends when Lacie engages in

conversation with a fellow inmate as they exchange insults about one another while smiling. This

is the first interaction each person has had that does not end in a subsequent ranking of one

another, and Lacie and the inmate appear greatly relieved and surprisingly content.

Highlighting the prevalence and increased reliance on social technology present within

our contemporary world, this particular episode of Black Mirror speculates a near future in

which your popularity and ability to receive high “ratings” from fellow members of society

directly translates to your social and economic status. In this fictional world, an individual’s high

social media rating endows them with certain privileges, such as the ability to live in certain

neighborhoods and receive priority treatment at various public places. Although this type of

social privilege is by no means foreign to our current society, “Nosedive” proposes a strong

causal relationship between the use of social technology and a strengthened social hierarchy.
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Although the episode appears to exaggerate the extent to which the world relies on social

technology as a means of rating individuals, the story also exhibits a system of social hierarchy

and inequality that is arguably closely reminiscent to that which exists within our own reality.

Thus, the dystopian society depicted in “Nosedive” not only appears vaguely familiar to our

current world, but also alarmingly realistic.

This startling parallel between Black Mirror’s speculative world of social rating and our

own current reality is perhaps most evident when looking at the development of the Chinese

Social Credit System. First proposed in 2007, China’s Social Credit System was allegedly

designed to allow the government to “rate the trustworthiness of its 1.4 billion citizens” (Zeng).

While the program has not yet been implemented on a national scale, certain regions of the

country have already begun to enforce a system that rates the behavior of their citizens. Despite

the fact that the system remains in its earliest phase, millions of citizens have already been

“blacklisted” by government authorities, who have classified such individuals as “not qualified”

to book flights or high-speed train tickets (Zeng). Looking to implement the credit system on an

even larger scale, the Chinese government asserts that one’s social credit score can be lowered if

individuals cheat on a game online, leave a false review on a product, or jaywalk while crossing

the street (Zeng).

While each of these inconspicuous actions appears to be difficult to accurately monitor

within a country that contains a population of over 1 billion people, China has begun to use new

technologies that increase the ease with which people committing such acts can be identified. For

example, the recent development of highly accurate facial recognition technology has given

government authorities the power to identify and penalize individuals who are crossing the street

by jaywalking (Zeng). In order to heighten the severity of the punishment for such an act of
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disobedience, some police have begun to post the names and photos of jaywalkers on social

media or project them on digital screens posted in large public spaces (Chun). Thus, just as the

dystopian world in Black Mirror makes public each person’s ranking out of five stars, China

makes known the face and identity of citizens who are committing acts deemed as “disobedient.”

Jon Ronson, a journalist known for his book on the increasing prevalence of public shaming on

social media platforms, states that the practice of publicly shaming other individuals is often

viewed as “the democratization of justice” (qtd. in Sicha). Despite the ability of multiple

members of society to participate in condoning the actions of others, the practice of public

shaming heightens the severity of punishment for behavior deemed “bad.” By posting photos of

each individual in public places, China’s Social Credit System is not only intended to publicly

shame individuals for behavior that both the government disapproves of, but also to further

stratify citizens on the basis of their actions. While the Social Credit System in and of itself

contains many parallels to the fictional society painted in Black Mirror, the use of public

shaming and facial recognition technology is another layered aspect of the program that is

closely reminiscent of the highly technical speculative future depicted in “Nosedive.”

While the Social Credit System in China appears to place a large emphasis on its punitive

role in monitoring behavior, the system also proposes rewards for behaviors that mirror those of

a model citizen. Just as individuals in Black Mirror with high scores out of five have access to

better car rentals and the ability to earn standby seats on flights, individuals in China with high

social credit scores will apparently be entitled to more affordable public transportation and

shorter wait times in hospitals (Zeng). Thus, the systems of evaluation and ranking present in

both the fictional world of Black Mirror and modern Chinese society stratify individuals in more

ways than one. On a purely numerical level, an individual’s score provides them with a
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quantifiable way in which they can compare themselves to their fellow members of society.

While this numerical stratification helps to solidify existing social hierarchies because of the

indisputable score that each person is assigned, the privileges that accompany the relative scores

are equally as powerful in exaggerating existing social hierarchies. The ability of individuals in

China with higher social credit scores to wait less time at the hospital not only endows them with

the convenience of saving time, but also with the theoretical ability to have healthcare more

readily accessible. Such a reward is not only one of convenience, but also one of a better quality

of life. Thus, the parallel between China’s Social Credit System and the world of Black Mirror

suggests that such systems of social rating and evaluation could plausibly become our known

reality. Just as the imagined world in “Nosedive” presents a society that is highly stratified and

vastly unequal, the Social Credit System in China holds the capability of greatly amplifying

social inequality and strengthening existing social hierarchies. This increase in social inequality

not only stems from the use of social technologies, but also from the psychological and narrative

power of assigning individuals blatant, indisputable rankings.

Systems that assign each individual with an explicit social ranking prove so effective in

fostering and maintaining social hierarchies because they prevent social class mobility. The

inability of individuals to transcend their initial rating is a result of both psychological theories of

group formation, as well as Arthur Frank’s theory of narrative interpellation. Within the world of

social psychology, the concept of relative social classes and social stratification has been studied

at length. Although perception of social class can differ between individuals of varying cultural

backgrounds, psychologists have postulated that signs and signals that indicate social class can

“activate social comparison processes that strengthen group boundaries between the haves and

have nots in society” (Kraus et al.). Subsequently, signals of social class can drastically impact
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an individual’s behavior. Using the notorious example of air rage on airplanes, several studies

have supported the idea that “extreme antisocial behavior” on flights is reportedly higher when

signals of social class, such as a first class cabin, are present (Kraus et al.). Although the example

of “air rage” includes a tangible division between members of different classes, many signs of

differing social classes can be far more subtle, such as one’s wardrobe.

Whether signs of social class are obvious or discreet, researchers have theorized that such

signals help to maintain boundaries between classes by reducing mobility between groups and

limiting “cross-class contact” (Kraus et al.). Despite the fact that social class is most commonly a

quality that is inferred indirectly from one’s profession, one’s housing, or one’s level of

education, systems of social ranking foster blatant, numerical divides between individuals. When

applying these theories of social psychology to the fictional world of “Nosedive” and the current

Chinese Social Credit system, it becomes widely evident that these systems of explicit rankings

prove so effective in amplifying social inequality because they enforce blatant signals of social

class. By providing each individual with a conglomerate score that reflects their exact social

standing relative to other individuals, these rating systems can eliminate ambiguous group

boundaries and replace them with blatant, numerical tiers.

This change from ambiguous boundaries to overt societal rankings profoundly impacts

not only the extent to which social inequality persists, but also the manner in which individuals

willingly adopt their prescribed position within the larger social hierarchy. This acceptance of

inequality and ranking is perhaps most evident when considered within the context of Arthur

Frank’s Letting Stories Breathe. In describing the power of storytelling, Frank underscores the

concept of interpellation, which he defines as the means by which an individual is called “to

acknowledge and act on a particular identity” (Frank 49). Looking once more at the speculative
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world depicted in “Nosedive,” it becomes widely evident that the members of this dystopian

society are interpellated by the rating out of five stars that they receive from their peers to adopt

a certain societal identity. The rating of each individual, such as the average score of 4.232 that

Lacie has at the beginning of the episode, stands almost as a story in and of itself. The number is

designed to supposedly reflect Lacie’s ability to connect with other people, hold meaningful

interactions, and gain approval from those around her. Thus, with each score, each person is

endowed with a story, and with each story, each person is interpellated to adopt and accept a

certain identity.

In describing the power and force of this interpellation, Frank underscores the ability of

stories to influence the formation of one’s own identity, stating “the all too human dilemma is

that by accepting being in a story, a person at least provisionally accepts being what the story

casts him or her to be, its interpellation” (Frank 51). Thus, the social rating assigned to each

individual in the fictional world of Black Mirror asks each member of society to accept “what

the story casts him or her to be.” Individuals must not only participate in other people’s stories

by giving other people ratings, but must also accept the interpellation of their own subsequent

social ranking. A story calling “on its characters to be particular sorts of selves” (Frank 49) is

equivalent to a society asking its members to accept the social rating that they have arbitrarily

“earned.” Although the members of the fictional world depicted in “Nosedive” appear to

willingly accept the interpellative power of their score and adopt their assigned social identity,

the system of social credit implemented in China exemplifies a more nuanced power of

interpellation. The rankings given to each Chinese citizen is not reflective of their fellow

citizen’s “rating” of them, but rather, of the government’s own evaluation. Thus, the score given

to citizens within a system of social credit interpellates them to adopt the identity asked of them
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by their government, rather than of their fellow members of society. Despite this distinct

difference between China’s system of social credit and Black Mirror’s mutual social rankings,

both hierarchal societies rely on social stratification to elicit compliance and acceptance from

their members. To stratify members of society is to interpellate them into certain roles and

identities, and that is exactly what systems of social ranking achieve. Explicit societal rankings

exaggerate social inequality not only by creating a blatant social hierarchy, but also by drawing

on the narrative power of stories to call individuals into certain societal roles.

While the social rating assigned to each individual in Black Mirror serves to interpellate

each member of the fictional society into their respective societal roles, the episode of

speculative fiction also interpellates the audience to reflect on their own “subject position,”

another concept of Frank’s outlined in Letting Stories Breathe. Highlighting the ability of

narratives to elicit certain actions from those interpellated by stories, Frank defines subject

position as “the character’s more or less reflective awareness of who the type of narrative

requires him or her to be, and what being that character requires him or her to do” (Frank 51). As

a whole, the genre of speculative fiction challenges its audience to reflect on their own subject

position within both the speculative, fictional story, as well as within the narrative of their own

reality. Watching the hour-long episode of “Nosedive” and witnessing individuals conduct their

lives according to the social score out of five stars that they have received from their peers

challenges us, as the audience, to recognize how such a society parallels our own. Recognizing

the striking similarity between such a dystopia and the modern world we live in today, we are

called upon, or rather, interpellated, to understand our own role in helping to foster a society that

is so explicitly hierarchical and unequal. Through hearing such stories of speculative fiction and
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reflecting on our own “subject position” within the narrative, we can gain valuable insight as to

how we can avoid the dystopian future depicted.

Ultimately, as a work of speculative fiction, Season 3, Episode 1 of Black Mirror

underscores the power of social technology and systematic methods of social ratings to

strengthen and maintain systems of social inequality. When comparing this work of speculative

fiction to the real-world example set forth by China’s Social Credit System, it becomes

increasingly evident that the seemingly dystopian society painted in Black Mirror is closely

reminiscent of our own modern reality. Drawing upon the research of social psychologists, we

can see that overt signals of social class, such as that included in Black Mirror, are so effective in

helping to amplify inequality because they are able to strengthen group boundaries and prevent

mobility between groups. In addition to analyzing the concept of social credit through the lens of

social psychology, it is also important to understand how Arthur Frank’s concept of narrative

interpellation heightens social inequality and stratification. When individuals are assigned

numbers, ratings, or “social credit scores,” they are ultimately interpellated to accept their

respective societal roles. When individuals are subjected to such narrative interpellation and

accept their assigned societal roles, existing structures of social inequality and hierarchy are not

only maintained, but also greatly strengthened. While the members of such societies are

interpellated to accept their ratings, we, as viewers of a story of speculative fiction, are also

called upon to recognize how such a society parallels our own. Ultimately, the genre of

speculative fiction not only challenges us to recognize the startling parallels that exist between

our reality and the dystopian societies speculated for our future, but also requires us to

understand how we can actively work to avoid such societal fates.

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Works Cited

Chun, Rene. "Machines That Scan Your Face." Atlantic, vol. 321, no. 3, Apr. 2018, pp. 14-15.

Frank, Arthur W. Letting Stories Breathe. Chicago and London, the University of Chicago

Press, 2010.

Kraus, Michael W., et al. “Signs of Social Class: The Experience of Economic Inequality in

Everyday Life.” Perspectives on Psychological Science, vol. 12(3), 2017, pp. 422-435.

“Nosedive.” Black Mirror, season 3, episode 1, Netflix, 2011.

Sicha, Choire. “Jon Ronson’s ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.’” The New York Times, 17

April 2015.

Zeng, Meg Jing. “China’s Social Credit System puts its people under pressure to be model

citizens.” The Conversation. 23 January 2018.