WANTED: “Nounours,” the incredibly comforting teddy bear at UM
There are nine of them—biologists, ecologists, psychologists, computer scientists, and science communicators at the University of Montpellier. They were selected by the jury of Researchers’ Night to lead the Great Participatory Experiment (GEP), which took place on September 27, 2019.
Their mission: to create a composite sketch of the most comforting teddy bear in France.
The suspect is a teddy bear. He may be present in one of the twelve cities participating in Researchers’ Night on September 27. The public is advised to exercise the utmost caution: the suspect could be dangerously comforting. Since last April, nine scientists at the University of Montpellier have been working in the utmost secrecy on a foolproof plan to identify and apprehend the alleged culprit with the help of the general public.
Top researchers stepping up
At the heart of it all is Thierry Brassac. A science communicator at the University of Montpellier, he launched his first exhibition on biodiversity featuring stuffed animals in 2010. Fascinated by these little creatures, he never looked back, even going so far as to teach this “gentle science” in the University of Montpellier’s master’s program in science communication.“Plushology—you either love it or you don’t get it—but one thing is certain: scientifically speaking, it only works if you approach it with the utmost seriousness,” he warns. Now an expert in the art of classifying teddy bears, he serves as the coordinator of this project.
To capture the teddy bear, Thierry Brassac assembled a multidisciplinary team.“At the time, Nicolas Mouquet was working on the aesthetics of fish; when I told him about the composite sketch, he suggested classifying teddy bears based on morphological characteristics, following the model of the natural sciences,” explains the mediator. Renowned for his work on the mechanisms of the emergence and maintenance of diversity, Nicolas Mouquet is also the scientific director of the Center for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity in Montpellier (CESAB). Working alongside him, Anne-Sophie Tribot, an ecologist and biologist, oversaw the development of the protocol. Their goal: to identify the suspect’s morphological profile and its comfort-giving power.
The third pillar of this elite team is Nathalie Blanc. As deputy director of the EPSYLON cognitive psychology laboratory, her in-depth knowledge of the development of emotional understanding in children will help shed light on how the teddy bear lures its victims. Joining them are Michel Raymond, an evolutionary biologist atthe Montpellier Institute of Evolutionary Sciences (ISEM); François Guilhaumon, a research fellow atthe IRD; Nicolas Casajus, an eco-computer scientist at CESAB; Moad Essabbar, a doctoral student in electronics; and Christopher Sevin, a student in science communication at the University of Montpellier.
The Great Participatory Experience
Selected last April by a jury of science communicators and researchers, this research project will be at the heart of the Great Participatory Experiment (GEP), which will take place on September 27 as part of the 15th Researchers’ Night. The public expected to attend in the 12 host cities is invited to participate by bringing their favorite stuffed animal. During the evening, researchers will photograph the little stuffed animals and subject them to a series of tests to create a detailed profile. Participants need not worry about their precious stuffed animals:“They will be returned to their owners once the tests are complete. No harm will come to them,” explains Thierry Brassac.
Next, it will be their owners’ turn to answer a short series of questions developed by Nathalie Blanc. The goal: to explore the subjective relationship we form with these objects, particularly the concept of comfort.“We ask participants to compare their teddy bear with eight other stuffed animals and tell us whether they find it more or less pleasing to look at, more or less soft…” explains the facilitator.
A protocol that’s anything but “silly”
“Seemingly trivial,” setting up such an experimental protocol required meticulous preparation. It all started with selecting the relevant criteria: head, body, and eye size; roundness; the teddy bear’s posture; clothing accessories; internal mechanisms (lights, sound devices, etc.); fur length and softness… Everything was taken into account! Other criteria, such as softness, had to be abandoned because they were too complicated to measure.
Another challenge is ensuring that observations are conducted under the same conditions everywhere. When it comes to color, for example, it’s difficult to rely solely on descriptions like “black,” “beige,” or “yellow,” as these could leave too much room for subjectivity. To quantify the shade as accurately as possible, Anne-Sophie Tribot therefore teamed up with Montpellier-based biophysicist Frédéric Geniet to develop a color chart.“It took a tremendous amount of work to create it, but also to print it, because we had to ensure that every city would be working with the same colors,” explains Thierry Brassac.
Putting together the control sample also posed a challenge for the team, which this time had to deal with purely practical constraints:“We had to find a supplier capable of delivering twelve of each teddy bear so that every participating city would have the same sample.” After numerous unsuccessful attempts with major retailers, it was ultimately Montpellier’s historic toy store, Pomme de Reinette et Pomme d’Api, that was able to meet the researchers’ request.
The bear: a totem animal
This major participatory experience builds on the work carried out by the University of Montpellier’s Science and Culture Department over many years, particularly the exhibition “From Cave Bears to Teddy Bears.” “What interests us is the entire imaginary aspect of the bear—its representation in our unconscious. The bear has held strong symbolic significance since prehistoric times; it is the quintessential totem animal of Western societies,” concludes Thierry Brassac.
Researchers still have a lot of work ahead of them to ensure everything is ready by September 27. A website, which will be open to the public thereafter, will be dedicated to the data processing and analysis. The result will be a carefully collected dataset that can be analyzed using bioinformatics tools, which will help create a profile of France’s most comforting teddy bear—and… perhaps even lead to a scientific publication?
Researchers' Night, September 27, 2019
In Toulouse-Albi, Marseille, Bordeaux, Limoges, Saint-Étienne, Angers, Le Mans, Brest, Dijon, Besançon, Paris, and Saint-Denis de la Réunion