5 Psychological Experiments That Prove Humanity is Doomed
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#2.
The Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)
The Setup:
Zimbardo transformed the Stanford Psychology Department's basement into a mock prison. Subjects volunteered by simply responding to a newspaper 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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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. If you enjoyed that, you might like our rundown of 5 Mental Disorders That Can Get You Laid. Or check out the T Shirt designs you'll be wearing tomorrow and submit your own in the Photoshop contest in the forum. If you're out of ideas, head over to eHow for Cracked.com Editor Jack O'Brien's handy guide on How to Design a Funny T-Shirt. And if you're tired of finding the best Cracked has to offer on your own sign up for the Cracked Newsletter and receive the choicest articles in your inbox every Thursday morning. |
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Slane we have good Samaritan laws to protect against that kind of thing. If you are trying to save someones life and something goes wrong you can't really be sued.
I'm doing Psychology at college and have heard of most of these studies. To be fair on the Milgram one, when he moved the location to a warehouse only 31% went up to the "XXX" level. The study has been repeated tons of times, and each time it's had different results.
About Charles Sheridan and Richard King, forget about going to hell, how about going to jail? Sheesh, Our society doesn't even bother to punish criminals.
I mean, these scientists did it for fun, it's not like they added anything new to science, after Milgram.
Zimbardo's and Milgram's experiments are suddenly cast as even more horrifying when you learn that those two went to high school together and were best buds.
(Source: Philip Zimbardo's goddamn autobiography at zimbardo.com)
Hey ChrisJones - the V for Vendetta picture fits perfectly. They are saying how people don't want to be conformed...so they ALL rebel and fight it - but odly enough...all end up conforming.
The scariest part is, that conformity exercise was repeated later with the addition of brain-scans. When you go against the group, your brain fires up in the "anger" and "fear" areas. You have to steel yourself.
But when you go with the group, it fires up the "spatial perception" areas. Which means it affects what you're actually perceiving. Which means only one thing. You see five fingers when there are four.
The V for Vendetta picture is not appropriate at all that has nothing to do with conformity if anything it's about people's willingness to help out the person fighting non-conformity
I just have to note when everyone is so sue happy in our society it scares everyone away from helping or getting involved. I don't want to help that person having a heart attach if I do something wrong he could sue me for millions of dollars and my life will be ruined... Get the point!
another study to possibly add would be the experiment at the Hawthorne Powerplant in the US.
A study was devised to work out the optimum working conditions for the work force to maximise productivity. The heating and lighing conditions were alterered along with lenght of hours and breaks.
however the resaerchers couldn't pinpoint why, no-matter which variable was altered, productivity was increesed. It was later discovered that is was the fact that the work force was being overtly observed that productivity was increased. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the situation where at school or college if inspectors are pressent then the teachers go into overdrive...productivity increases.
hopefully that may be helpfull???
Dan
Oh, I almost forgot.......I hope that the people who shocked the puppies (including the guy(s) who set up the experiment) rot in hell.
I learned about a few of these experiments during college (during a psych class, of course). There is one detail in the last experiment that the poster stated incorrectly/incompletely.....the "guy in lab coat" in the Milgram experiment actually told people that HE was responsible for whatever happened and that they could not be held responsible. He basically told them that they could, more or less, kill the subject in the other room and not face legal repercussions because it was his experiment (even though they were making the choice to obey him......). Basically, he wanted to prove whether or not people would commit evil acts if they had some sort of scapegoat, if someone else would bear the blame for them. He ended up proving something that most of us have learned through our own experiences: the majority of people are jackasses.
@checkminus
The odds are that you would deliver the highest voltage to that puppy.
Remember, when you say "people are disgusting." You are one of those people.
The Stanford Prison Experiment: as sexy and interesting as it seems, is deeply flawed.
Zimbardo himself was the Warden, essentially controlling the experiment. Think about a scientific experiment, this violates so many principles.
You are not supposed to influence any part of your experiment, if there is a TRUE effect in your hypotheses, it will reveal itself without your intervention.
Without analyzing the experiment further, this experiment was obviously never replicated, and I understand that it cannot be replicated due to the ethics of modern experimentation.
But you must take this experiment with a grain of salt, it's extremely interesting, and let's leave it at that.
Let's not point to it to make grandiose statements about the Human Psyche.
this article should be called, reasons people are f****n' dumb fodder.
i felt sorry for this loser of a kid at work when he mentioned getting into a fight (not his fault) and "everyone just looked" at him.
Sad, but there was a time i assumed everyone had a good heart and their own brain - like they could actually think instead of gaping at any weird, out of the ordinary thing that happens - but they don't. Might sound wrong, but i told him that's the reason you NEVER expect help. Don't even ask for it if you have a knife sticking out of your back. Cuz nobody CARES. People think it's a sign of antipathy or depression, but seriously, it's simply the way it is. You'd be surprised how content you'll be with life and how easily you'll deal with anything if you never expect anyone will give a s**t about anything you do, or what happens to you. An eternal attitude of "oh, well" pretty much leaves nothing to surprise. If i happen to be near death and a hot samaritan shows genuine concern (not that fake s**t i can smell from a mile away) maybe i'll have some faith in the human race.
@Arthella: It says that it's source is cracked.com. >.>
These experiments kinda scared me...
Actually, in the prison experiment, people DID leave. One guy had a breakdown (and was actually ENCOURAGED to stay!). He said that he was reluctant to leave because he didn't want his fellow "inmates" to think of him as a "bad prisoner."
They brought in a replacement, who was shunned by the other prisoners.
If anyone is actually interested in that experiment, the film "Silent Rage" shows actual footage from the experiment and interviews with Zimbardo, the "guards," and the "prisoners."
This list has been ripped off at http://www.mindpowernews.com/5Psychological.htm bastards!
oh s**t! last year at my high school this psych class was doin experients and I got chosen and it was the first one! they said I didnt conform with any of the lines hahah Im BA!
Look at the author... it's the same person.
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Regarding the tiff over using the V For Vendetta picture there, the fact that they were a unified mass of people was rather the point. The author of the piece had it pretty much right on. Though of course, they weren't rebelling against conformity, per se, so it isn't as though they were somehow negating their own point by doing so. After all, to despise one form of government (or one manifestation of a particular type) is not tantamount to embracing anarchy.