Over the years, social psychologists have explored these questions by conductingexperiments.
Do you bow to group pressure?
Asch also placed confederates in the group who would intentionally choose the wrong lines.
Doug Corrance. / Getty Images
The Bobo Doll Experiment
Does watching violence on television cause children to behave more aggressively?
In hisBobo doll experiments, children would watch an adult interacting with a Bobo doll.
The experiment has also helped inspire hundreds of additional studies exploring the impacts of observed aggression and violence.
Results of the Stanford Prison Experiment
TheStanford prison experimentwas initially slated to last a full two weeks.
It ended after just six days.
Ethical Concerns
Part of the notoriety stems from the study’s treatment of the participants.
The subjects were placed in a situation that created considerable psychological distress.
So much so that the study had to be halted less than halfway through the experiment.
The experimenters also appear to have encouraged certain behaviors to help foster more abusive behavior.
The results of the obedience experiments are disturbing because they reveal that people are much moreobedientthan they may believe.
More recent findings suggest that other problems question the study’s findings.
Some participants were coerced into continuing against their wishes.
However, it is important to be aware of the controversies, limitations, and criticisms of these studies.
More recent research may reflect differing results.
Association for Psychological Science.
Zimbardo, G.The Stanford Prison Experiment: a simulation study on the psychology of imprisonment.
Baker PC.Electric Schlock: Did Stanley Milgram’s famous obedience experiments prove anything?Pacific Standard.
Perry G.Deception and illusion in Milgram’s accounts of the obedience experiments.Theory Appl Ethics.
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