Tin foil hat

Origin

Some people – "Tin Foil Hatters" – have a belief that such hats prevent mind control by governments, spies, mobsters, corporations, extraterrestrial, or paranormal beings that employ ESP or the microwave auditory effect. People in many countries who believe they are "targeted individuals", subject to government, corporate, or criminal spying or harassment, have developed websites, conference calls, and support meetings to discuss their concerns, including the idea of protective headgear. Vice Magazine wrote that the tin foil hat in popular culture "can be traced back in a very weird and prescient short story written in 1927 by Julian Huxley" titled The Tissue-Culture King, wherein the main character uses a metal hat to prevent being mind controlled by the villain scientist. Over time the term tin foil hat has become associated with paranoia and conspiracy theories.

Scientific basis

Effects of strong electromagnetic radiation on health have been documented for quite some time. The efficiency of a metal enclosure in blocking electromagnetic radiation depends on the thickness of the foil, as dictated by the "skin depth" of the conductor for a particular wave frequency range of the radiation. For half-millimetre-thick aluminum foil, radiation above about 20 kHz (i.e., including both AM and FM bands) would be partially blocked, although aluminum foil is not sold in this thickness, so numerous layers of foil would be required to achieve this effect.

Allan H. Frey discovered in 1962 that the microwave auditory effect (i.e., the sounds induced by the reception of radio-frequency electromagnetic signals, heard as clicks and buzzes) can be blocked by a patch of wire mesh (rather than foil) placed above the temporal lobe. A tongue-in-cheek experimental study by a group of MIT students in 2005 found that tin foil hats do shield their wearers from radio waves over most of the tested spectrum, but amplified certain frequencies, around 2.6 GHz and 1.2 GHz.

In popular culture

Daniel Wilson wrote in a 2016 article in paranormal magazine Fortean Times noted an early allusion to an "insulative electrical contrivance encircling the head during thought" in the unusual 1909 non-fiction publication Atomic Consciousness by self-proclaimed "seer" John Palfrey (aka "James Bathurst") who believed such headgear was not effective for his "retention of thoughts and ideas" against a supposed "telepathic impactive impingement".

Tin foil hats have appeared in such films as Signs (2002), Noroi: The Curse (2005), and Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009). The 2019 HBO television series Watchmen features the character Wade Tillman/Looking Glass, a police officer who wears a mask made of reflective foil, and while off-duty, a cap lined in foil to protect his mind from alien psychic attacks.

American comedy musician "Weird Al" Yankovic referenced the concept in his 2014 song Foil, a parody of the song Royals by Lorde. Yankovic begins the parody by discussing the merit of the use of aluminum foil for its uses for food preservation, before abruptly segueing into a discussion about various conspiracy theories and the necessity of protection using a tin foil hat.

Several teachers in Russia's Voronezh Oblast reportedly posed in pictures with tin foil hats in 2024, due a prank by a Belarusian prankster Vladislav Bokhan, who posed as an official from United Russia. He sent an "order" to local schools asking teachers to hold a "Helmet of the Fatherland" workshop, which contained instructions for making tin foil hats as a "patriotic campaign" and to "defend themselves from the irradiation from NATO satellites". The local branch of the Russian Ministry of Education commended the teachers for demonstrating "patriotic spirit, strong dedication, and a creative approach to any task", despite it being a prank.

References

References

1. "Foil - metallurgy". [[Encyclopædia Britannica]].
2. Weinberger, Sharon. (14 January 2007). "Mind Games". Washington Post.
3. (6 March 2015). "A Brief Cultural History of the Tin Foil Hat".
4. "The Tissue-Culture King".
5. Huxley, Julian. (August 1927). "The Tissue-Culture King". [[Amazing Stories]].
6. (15 November 2005). "Hey Crazy – Get a New Hat". Bostonist.
7. Adey, W. R.. (December 1979). "Neurophysiologic effects of Radiofrequency and Microwave Radiation". Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine.
8. Lean, Geoffrey. (7 May 2006). "Electronic smog". The Independent.
9. Jackson, John David. (1998). "Classical Electrodynamics". Wiley Press.
10. Frey, Allan H.. (1962-07-01). "Human auditory system response to modulated electromagnetic energy". Journal of Applied Physiology.
11. (2003). "Auditory response to pulsed radiofrequency energy". Bioelectromagnetics.
12. Soniak, Matt. (2012-09-28). "Tin Foil Hats Actually Make it Easier for the Government to Track Your Thoughts".
13. (2005-02-17). "On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study".
14. Bathurst, James. (1909). "Atomic Consciousness Abridgement". W. Manning, London.
15. Wilson, Daniel. (June 2016). "Atomic-Consciousness".
16. Lang, Cady. (September 20, 2019). "Area 51 Raid But Make It Fashion: It Takes a Lot to Stand Out at Alien-Themed Festival But This Guy's Tin Foil Hat Is Working".
17. Whittaker, Richard. (July 9, 2017). "DVDanger: Don't Knock Twice". [[The Austin Chronicle]].
18. Miller III, Randy. (February 1, 2009). "Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder".
19. Erdmann, Kevin. (November 18, 2019). "Watchmen: Biggest Comic Easter Eggs in Episode 5".
20. Lynch, Joe. (2014-07-16). "‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, Patton Oswalt Confront the Illuminati in ‘Royals’ Parody ‘Foil’ (Watch)".
21. (November 11, 2024). "Belarusian Artist Says Tinfoil Hat Prank Tests 'Fascistization' In Russian Society".
22. Petrenko, Roman. (10 November 2024). "Prankster makes teachers in Russia make patriotic tin foil hats – photos".