5 Psychological Experiments That Prove Humanity is Doomed
#2.
The Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)
The Setup:
Psychologist Philip Zimbardo wanted to find out how captivity affects authorities and inmates in prison. Sounds innocent enough. Seriously, what could go wrong?
Zimbardo transformed the Stanford Psychology Department's basement into a mock prison. Subjects volunteered by simply responding to a newspaper ad ...
Not the actual ad
... and then passing a test proving good health and high-quality mental stability, which are very important factors in deciding who goes to prison. These volunteers were all male college students who were then divided arbitrarily into 12 guards and 12 prisoners. Zimbardo himself decided that he wanted to play too, and elected himself Prison Superintendent. The simulation was planned to run for two weeks.
Yep, nothing at all can go wrong with this.
The Result:
It took about one day for every subject to suddenly go as insane as a shit-house rat. On only the second day, prisoners staged a riot in the faux detention center, with prisoners barricading their cells with their beds and taunting the guards. The guards saw this as a pretty good excuse to start squirting fire extinguishers at the insurgents because, hey, why the hell not?
From that point on, the Stanford Prison that had already gone to hell, just continued to ricochet around in hell for day after day. Some guards began forcing inmates to sleep naked on the concrete, restricting the bathroom as a privilege (one that was often denied). They forced prisoners to do humiliating exercises and had them clean toilets with their bare hands.
Incredibly, when "prisoners" were told they had a chance at parole, and then the parole was denied, it didn't occur to them to simply ask out of the damned experiment. Remember they had absolutely no legal reason to be imprisoned, it was just a damned role-playing exercise. This fact continued to escape them as they sat naked in their own filth, with bags on their heads.
Over 50 outsiders had stopped to observe the prison, but the morality of the trial was never questioned until Zimbardo's girlfriend, Christina Maslach, strongly objected. After only six days, Zimbardo put a halt to the experiment (several of the "guards" expressed disappointment at this). If you were about to applaud Maslach as the only sane person involved in this clusterfuck, you should know that she went on to marry Zimbardo, the guy who orchestrated the whole thing.
What This Says About You:
Ever been harassed by a cop who acted like a major douchebag, pushing you around for no reason? Science says that if the roles were reversed, you'd likely act the same way.
As it turns out, it's usually fear of repercussion that keeps us from torturing our fellow human beings. Give us absolute power over somebody and a blank check from our superiors, and Abu Ghraib-esque naked pyramids are sure to follow. Hey, if it can happen to a bunch of Vietnam-era hippie college students, it sure as hell could happen to you.
#1.
The Milgram Experiment (1961)
The Setup:
When the prosecution of the Nazis got underway at the Nuremberg Trials, many of the defendants' excuse seemed to revolve around the ideas of, "I'm not really a prick" and, "Hey man, I was just following orders." Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram wanted to test willingness of subjects to obey an authority figure. Maybe he could just, you know, ask people? Oh, hell no. That would not be nearly horrifying enough.
Instead he ran an experiment where the subject was told he was a "teacher" and that his job was to give a memory test to another subject, located in another room. The whole thing was fake and the other subject was an actor.
The subject was told that whenever the other guy gave an incorrect answer, he was to press a button that would give him an electric shock. A guy in a lab coat was there to make sure he did it (again no real shock was being delivered, but the subject of course did not know this).
The subject was told that the shocks started at 45 volts and would increase with every wrong answer. Each time they pushed the button, the actor on the other end would scream and beg for the subject to stop.
So, can you guess how this went?
The Result:
Many subjects began to feel uncomfortable after a certain point, and questioned continuing the experiment. However, each time the guy in the lab coat encouraged them to continue. Most of them did, upping the voltage, delivering shock after shock while the victim screamed. Many subjects would laugh nervously, because laughter is the best medicine when pumping electrical currents through another person's body.
Eventually the actor would start banging on the wall that separated him from the subject, pleading about his heart condition. After further shocks, all sounds from victim's room would cease, indicating he was dead or unconscious. If you had to guess, what percentage of the subjects kept delivering shocks after that point?
Five percent? Ten?
Between 61 and 66 percent of subjects would continue the experiment until it reached the maximum voltage of 450, continuing to deliver shocks after the victim had been zapped into unconsciousness or the afterlife. Repeated studies have shown the same result: Subjects will mindlessly deliver pain to an innocent stranger as long as a dude in a lab coat says it's OK.
Most subjects wouldn't begin to object until after 300-volt shocks. Zero of them asked to stop the experiment before that point (keep in mind 100 volts is enough to kill a man, in some cases).
What This Says About You:
You might like to think of yourself as a free-thinking marauder, but when it comes down to it, odds are you won't stick it to The Man because of the fear The Man will stick it right back up your ass. And this was just a guy in a lab coat--imagine if he'd had a uniform, or a badge.
Charles Sheridan and Richard King took this experiment one step further, but asked subjects to shock a puppy for every incorrect action it made. Unlike Milgram's experiment, this shock was real. Exactly 20 out of 26 subjects went to the highest voltage.
Almost 80 percent. Think about that when you're walking around the mall: Eight out of ten of those people you see would torture the shit out of a puppy if a dude in a lab coat asked them to.
For more, go buy You Might Be a Zombie anywhere books are sold online or in person.
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I'm totally guilty of the Asch thing... When someone says something that sounds so incredibly obviously wrong, I just go silent thinking if they said something that SOUNDS that stupid, they must be pretty confident about it, and then I start to second guess myself and be afraid to say anything. But I'll jump on the train the moment someone ELSE says something.
ReplyDid anyone else see that f****n Cow-Squirrel in the doodle?
ReplyThe Stanford Prison experiment was honestly ruined by the leader guard, "John Wayne". Apparently he figured that the experiment was supposed to be about the brutality of prisons, so he intentionally acted cruel to emphasize the supposed point of the experiment. What a daft, condescending deluded asshole. Ruins an experiment and destroys academia's faith in humanity at the same time.
ReplyIt makes sense that most people are sheep. If everyone was a cunning bastard/bitch, we'd all fight each other and die. Man has been the most domesticated animal even before we discovered civilization. It's vital to our survival.
Reply#4 reminds me of an experiment I did when I was a teenager. I originally lived in Melbourne in Australia, which has about 4 million people. I had to move to Adelaide, which has roughly 1 million. I would lie down in the street motionless for a while in each city, and see if anyone would come and help. In Adelaide (the smaller city), it would be all of a few minutes before someone would come along and say "Are you alright?", but in Melbourne, not a single person came to my 'aid'. I even had people stepping over me, although most, I noted, avoided me, even crossing the street. I wonder if fear plays a part in this, when coupled with a large city (Melbourne is noted as a more dangerous city than Adelaide, although Adelaide technically beats Melbourne in terms of actual murder rate).
ReplySorry, a bit of a mistake there. Adelaide does not have a higher homicide rate than Melbourne. You can ignore that bit.
I remember when Tom Greene did something similar on his show. He was in Seattle at the Pike's Place Market, and he just laid face down in the market. A group gathered around him. It god really weird when most of the group were Asian tourists, and none of them asked if he was okay, or even touched him. He didn't move or make a sound, he just laid there, face down for an hour.
WOW now that i see #2 on this list i know where the idea for the german movie "das experiment" came from. i had no idea that it was based on an actual experiment. its an awesome movie that pretty much has the plot that is written here. if you guys havent seen it see it NOW.
Replybut about the conclusion of the experiment, i dont think that everyone would act like a douchebag if they were given the power. i think only people that are unhappy with themselves and are too weak to do anything about it in real life are like that. people that deep inside know that they are losers and dont have the cuts to do anything about it, will probably act like assholes when given power (something that they never had in real life), but people who feel good about themselves (in a positive way) will probably act sane and reasonable.
seriously if you havent seen "das experiment" see it its AWESOME. i think there is a english remake of it called the experiment but not sure if its any good. thank you cracked for telling me that one of my favorite movies is based on a real thing!! awesome
Much like anything else, you have to be trained to take action. I went to a coaches college at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Along with the sport, we had to take first aid, CPR and AED training. Our trainer pointed out that people tend to freeze in these situations, and wait for someone else to take charge. So, take charge! Give orders, such as "you keep everyone back" and "you call 911". They will obey you, because it is now assumed that you do know what to do. People want to help, if for no other reason than to feel good about themselves. But first they have to overcome that moment of fear. Give them a shove in the right direction, they'll do it.
ReplyI like to think I wouldn't be able to administer an electric shock to a puppy at all. Like to think. Am desperately hoping because my faith in humanity is slipping.
ReplyI'm pretty damn sure I'd fall for the conformity thing, though.
If they ever asked me to do the experiment where I have to cook a puppy(shock em) Id bring barbeque sauce !
#3 is actually something people are trying to work around in really interesting ways. like, I work for a big corporation, and we have CPR/first aid/etc. training, but only two people in each department need to sign up. If someone quits, transfers, etc. then they pick a new person. It sounds silly, but the idea is that if something happens, the people with training will know they have to step up and they can't say "someone else will take care of it." It's also why, when you learn CPR or first aid, they teach you to (a) tell someone else to call 911 while you're assessing the situation, and (b) address that person by name. So you don't just say "somebody call 911!" because then no one will do it. You say their name or otherwise indicate a specific person, because people are much more likely to act when they've specifically been told to. It helps break them out of the "deer in headlights" thing that happens in crisis situations.
ReplyI think it's also a question of culture and socialization, too. Where I'm from, for whatever reason, a lot of us have the "flight or fight" response permanently set on "fight," so in fear situations, my instinct is just to run right at it. I don't think it's better or worse than people who freeze or back off when they're scared or in a crisis situation (tbh it's nearly gotten my ass killed more than once), but it's just how I was raised.
Honestly, I have discussed just about all these topics with my circles of friends and they all agree that I certainly would break the mold with most of these situations. For one, I fear even simple static shocks like grim death, so the idea of subjecting someone to something worse than that by my hand would never sit right with me. On top of which I have SUCH a problem with authority that I have been kicked out of three schools, and argued with managers at several different jobs to the point of being fired when they even showed the slightest bias towards me.
Reply Hide All See All 5 RepliesI was a part of a situation where I could have been just a bystander and yet, did everything in my power to help. I was at a greyhound station in Cleveland after a bank robbery went down, the suspect ran into the station to try to evade police, was apprehended and ended up stabbing one of the guards stationed there. Not knowing he was hurt as bad as he was, he ran out of the station to get the suspect. Honestly no one even noticed this, seriously, and if they did they were not at all pointing it out, hell I'll admit that I didn't even notice. I made my way outside to have a cigarette when I saw the guard had collapsed next to the building, people were seriously passing this guy, even though there was a trail of blood coming towards him and dripping under him. As sick as blood makes me I knew this man was seriously injured, now I didn't exactly go right over and help him but I immediately put out my cigarette and ran inside, yelling that a guy was hurt. I mean, I couldn't get anywhere near him cause of the blood, but I was the one who drew attention to it, and more than enough people were there to notice as he was on the ground a few feet away from the entrance of a busy bus station.
I have stopped procedures, medical, and even legal proceedings with "suits in charge" because I KNEW that legally I could and I became uncomfortable enough not to submit myself to any more BS. Once I was brought in as an intimidation tactic for a crime that I was "About to commit" Whatever that means. The first thing I did was was say, "If you had enough so called evidence to charge me I would be in cuffs, I don't need to be here" and then left the court house. There was nothing they could do to stop me, as I knew they had nothing but scare tactics to hand to me.
Maybe you think this is all BS but I know the truth and I know what I have done so say what you will, I am one of the few that breaks the mold.
you are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo great i cant even fathome how great you are. i love you
you sound like a really fun person to be around
"I am one of the few that breaks the mold."
Watch out! We got a badass over here!
Why did you even write this comment? It seems like you're trying, desperately, with all your might, to convince yourself that you wouldn't shock a puppy if a guy in a lab coat told you to.
I would shock HoffyBunny even if a guy in a lab coat told me NOT to. Because he is really f*****g annoying.
Cool story, bro.
when it comes to Bystander Apathy Experiment, a little known fact is during there rule of France the Nazi's made it a law that you MUST help someone in distress, good on you Nazi's
Replyfor number one, im such a non conformist i dont conform with the non conformists, im my own man, im a combination of comic book nerd, video games nerd, heavy metaler, and pro wrestling fan
Replyfor example: Deadpools backstory changes depending on whos writeing the comic, and he understands this
Skyrim is the largest leap forward in time for any Elder Scrolls game, 300 years
METALLICA RUUUULLLLLLLLESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!
Cena Sucks!
I always laugh at pain.
ReplyAh. I still have nightmares about the Stanford and Milgram experiments from when we studied them in Psych 101. I can look at medical and autopsy photos without flinching, but those videos . . . eep.
ReplyYeah. I saw those vids in anthro/psych/sociology class, and it was eerie the way they laughed and then insisted that they didn't actually *heheh* find this FUNNY *heheh*
You were off slightly on #1. 3 out of 4 people conformed. The experiment was brought up because Asch was curious about Nazi Germany, in which many normal people seemed to go along with monstrous actions.
ReplyI'm surprised that the "guards" in the Stanford experiment just didn't go the whole f*****g way and make a human centipede out of the poor prisoners
ReplyI think that may have been because they didn't have the equipment to do that, and even with power most people would find that too creepy to try.
The Good Samaritan thing is a bit like the Bystander Effect. You're less likely to help if there are other people around.
ReplyThe conditions were different.
In "The Good Samaritan" experiment there was no-one around to witness and the subject was less likely to help the more he was pressed for time.
In "The Bystander Effect" the subject's willingness to assist was inversely proportional to the number of others thought to be participating.
Notice how I refer to them as Subjects and not People or Human Beings. I am starting to think that the whole notion of "Humanity" is an artificial concept we invented in order to reaffirm our superiority as the dominant species, when in reality we are just slightly more advanced primates, capable of higher thought but still thoroughly unevolved.
These results are not surprising. I mean seriously our tax dollars are going to a war where children are being blown to pieces for absolutely no f*****g reason. We kill billions of animals a year for our own consumption. We buy products from China that are made by children, products from India made by slaves. Oil from companies that openly pollute the drinking water of indigenous peoples in the Amazon. We ignore the homeless in our own communities, we call the unemployed "lazy", we allow innocent men on death row to be executed, black men to be imprisoned for minor drug offenses, people to die because they don't have health insurance.
ReplyYes, but we many of these experiments were performed in response to extreme situations sparking curiosity. The conformity experiment was created because of Nazi Germany and the Bystander Effect happened mainly due to the murder of Kitty Genovese.
I have seen all these experiments before in Highschool.
ReplyPlus the Third Wave Experiment back in '62.
Hey, I remember that as an After School Special on ABC. And then they made a book from the movie.
prove that christianity and islam fucked us over.... in a huge mindset way.... :-/
ReplyWhat the f**k does that have to do with anything?