06-12-2005, 07:02 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-12-2005, 07:08 AM by Obi2Kenobi.)
The Stanford Prison Experiment
In this experiment, the psychologist gathered a group of men, and randomly divided them into two groups: one half prisoners, one half guards. The man leading this experiment played the role of the Warden. He did everything he could to make it realistic, from bringing in ex-convicts to talking to actual guards.
The experiment had to be cancelled after only 6 days -- less than half of the planned time -- due to the increasingly sadistic punishments by the guards and development of psychological disorders by the prisoners.
The Milgram Shock Experiment
(Subjects and teachers are synonymous in this part)
People were chosen, thinking to be participating in an experiment on punishment and learning, and were told that they would be randomly selected at the beginning between learner and teacher. It was rigged so that the subject would always receive the status of teacher. The learner was then put into a room, had electrodes hooked up to him, and asked to answer some questions. If the learner got the question wrong, the teacher would then be asked by a man in a doctor's uniform to shock them with voltage increasing by 15 volts each time.
At 135 volts, the person would complain about their heart condition (which they had disclosed right before the experiment began to the subject [teacher]), and show visible pain, banging and screaming at higher levels. When the subject (teacher) showed discomfort, the man in the doctor's uniform would reassure the subject by saying that he wouldn't be held responsible for anything.
The voltage went up to 450. The shock generator was labeled from "Slight shock" to "Danger: severe shock". The final two switches were labeled only with their voltages, and "XXX".
Milgram notes: "I observed a mature and initially poised businessman enter the laboratory smiling and confident. Within twenty minutes, he was reduced to a twitching, stuttering wreck, who was rapidly approaching nervous collapse. He constantly pulled on his ear lope, and twisted his hands. At one point, he pushed his fist into his forehead and muttered, 'Oh God, let's stop it'. And yet he continued to respond to every word of the experimenter, and obeyed to the end." (Note: This is referring to the person administering the shock. The people "receiving" shocks were actually actors, and the electrodes weren't actually hooked to anything besides themselves.)
Not a single person stopped before 300 volts. Approximately 2/3 continued all the way to final voltage.
The experiment has been repeated many times, with other variables changed. There is no statistically significant difference between men (which is what the original experiment used) and women. People from elementary school drop-outs to doctors have been tested.
In one variant of this test, the subjects must hold the hand of the person on a shock plate to administer the test. In this condition, nearly 1/3 still sent the voltage up to the maximum amount.
The Monkeysphere
There are some who say that humans are the only creature that exhibit immorality, and that all others only kill out of need, and never do so sadistically. I disagree.
Male lions kill all surviving children in a pride they join after killing their father. This can be explained by them wanting to pass on their genes (since the female lion is only fertile when she has no young), true.
But how to explain and bacteria, who survive only by destroying other life? What about army ants, who devour anything in their path (which is why they have to keep moving, they destroy all usable resources in the area)? How are humans different?
I would ask those of you who think this if you own a cat. If so, you have most likely seen how they will catch moths. When they notice it, they usually swat at it until it falls, then they pounce upon it. Sometimes, they'll just keep swatting at it, others they will hold it in their mouths. Then they just watch it. If it moves, they repeat the process, and then when it stops, they lose interest and go away. The cat gains nothing out of this; there is no food benefit, as the cat just left the moth there, with no consumption of it at the end. Ever wonder where the term "cat and mouse" came from?
/edit: Even I couldn't understand that first explanation.
In this experiment, the psychologist gathered a group of men, and randomly divided them into two groups: one half prisoners, one half guards. The man leading this experiment played the role of the Warden. He did everything he could to make it realistic, from bringing in ex-convicts to talking to actual guards.
The experiment had to be cancelled after only 6 days -- less than half of the planned time -- due to the increasingly sadistic punishments by the guards and development of psychological disorders by the prisoners.
The Milgram Shock Experiment
(Subjects and teachers are synonymous in this part)
People were chosen, thinking to be participating in an experiment on punishment and learning, and were told that they would be randomly selected at the beginning between learner and teacher. It was rigged so that the subject would always receive the status of teacher. The learner was then put into a room, had electrodes hooked up to him, and asked to answer some questions. If the learner got the question wrong, the teacher would then be asked by a man in a doctor's uniform to shock them with voltage increasing by 15 volts each time.
At 135 volts, the person would complain about their heart condition (which they had disclosed right before the experiment began to the subject [teacher]), and show visible pain, banging and screaming at higher levels. When the subject (teacher) showed discomfort, the man in the doctor's uniform would reassure the subject by saying that he wouldn't be held responsible for anything.
The voltage went up to 450. The shock generator was labeled from "Slight shock" to "Danger: severe shock". The final two switches were labeled only with their voltages, and "XXX".
Milgram notes: "I observed a mature and initially poised businessman enter the laboratory smiling and confident. Within twenty minutes, he was reduced to a twitching, stuttering wreck, who was rapidly approaching nervous collapse. He constantly pulled on his ear lope, and twisted his hands. At one point, he pushed his fist into his forehead and muttered, 'Oh God, let's stop it'. And yet he continued to respond to every word of the experimenter, and obeyed to the end." (Note: This is referring to the person administering the shock. The people "receiving" shocks were actually actors, and the electrodes weren't actually hooked to anything besides themselves.)
Not a single person stopped before 300 volts. Approximately 2/3 continued all the way to final voltage.
The experiment has been repeated many times, with other variables changed. There is no statistically significant difference between men (which is what the original experiment used) and women. People from elementary school drop-outs to doctors have been tested.
In one variant of this test, the subjects must hold the hand of the person on a shock plate to administer the test. In this condition, nearly 1/3 still sent the voltage up to the maximum amount.
The Monkeysphere
There are some who say that humans are the only creature that exhibit immorality, and that all others only kill out of need, and never do so sadistically. I disagree.
Male lions kill all surviving children in a pride they join after killing their father. This can be explained by them wanting to pass on their genes (since the female lion is only fertile when she has no young), true.
But how to explain and bacteria, who survive only by destroying other life? What about army ants, who devour anything in their path (which is why they have to keep moving, they destroy all usable resources in the area)? How are humans different?
I would ask those of you who think this if you own a cat. If so, you have most likely seen how they will catch moths. When they notice it, they usually swat at it until it falls, then they pounce upon it. Sometimes, they'll just keep swatting at it, others they will hold it in their mouths. Then they just watch it. If it moves, they repeat the process, and then when it stops, they lose interest and go away. The cat gains nothing out of this; there is no food benefit, as the cat just left the moth there, with no consumption of it at the end. Ever wonder where the term "cat and mouse" came from?
/edit: Even I couldn't understand that first explanation.