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Famous Social Psychology Experiments
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The Milgram Experiment
The experiment measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. Participants were told to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to another participant (actually an actor). Findings revealed a high level of obedience to authority, with 65% of participants delivering the maximum shocks.
The Stanford Prison Experiment
A mock prison was set up in the basement of the Stanford psychology building, and participants were randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards. The experiment was intended to measure the effect of role-playing, labeling, and social expectations on behavior over a two-week period. The study was terminated early due to the extreme and abusive behavior exhibited by the 'guards' toward the 'prisoners'.
The Asch Conformity Experiments
Participants were asked to match the length of a line on a card with one of three lines on another card in the presence of a group of actors who intentionally chose the incorrect line. The experiment was designed to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could influence a person to conform. Results indicated a high degree of conformity, with over a third of participants conforming at least once.
The Bystander Effect (Latane and Darley)
Latane and Darley staged emergencies to determine whether bystanders would intervene and how the number of other witnesses influenced helping behavior. Their experiments showed that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present. The more bystanders there are, the less likely any one of them is to help, a phenomenon termed 'diffusion of responsibility'.
The Robbers Cave Experiment (Sherif)
Boys at a summer camp were divided into two groups and competed in activities for prizes, leading to intergroup conflict. The study then focused on reducing the conflict through cooperative tasks requiring intergroup cooperation. Findings showed that superordinate goals, which are goals valued by both groups, reduced animosity and promoted positive intergroup relations.
The Bobo Doll Experiment (Bandura)
Children watched a film clip where an adult model exhibited aggressive behavior towards a Bobo doll. The children who observed the aggressive model later showed a significantly higher level of aggression towards the doll. The experiment supported Bandura's social learning theory, indicating that children can learn social behavior such as aggression through observation.
The False Consensus Effect
Researchers investigated the degree to which individuals overestimate the extent that their own beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are shared by others. Experiments involved participants reporting their responses to various scenarios and then estimating the prevalence of their responses among their peers. Findings typically demonstrate an overestimation, suggesting that people have a bias toward believing their views are more common than they actually are.
The Hawthorne Effect
A series of productivity experiments were conducted at the Hawthorne Works factory, where variations in work conditions (e.g., lighting) were examined for their impact on worker productivity. Remarkably, researchers found that productivity improved not necessarily due to the changes themselves, but because workers knew they were being observed. This phenomenon, where individuals modify their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed, is now referred to as the 'Hawthorne Effect'.
The Fundamental Attribution Error
This concept explores the tendency for observers to overestimate personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while underestimating situational explanations. In a classic demonstration, people attribute behaviors of individuals in vignettes to their character rather than the specific circumstances influencing those behaviors. The concept has been confirmed through various experiments and is critical to understand social perception.
The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment
Children were offered a choice between one small immediate reward (a marshmallow) or two small rewards if they waited for a period of time alone with the marshmallow without eating it. Follow-up studies indicated that children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes. The experiment was pivotal in studying delayed gratification and self-control.
The Halo Effect
This cognitive bias describes the tendency for an observer's overall impression of a person, company, brand, or product to positively influence their feelings and thoughts about that entity's character or properties. Experimentally, it's demonstrated by contrasting the judgments made about individuals with different levels of perceived attractiveness or success, and observing the favorable treatment of those endowed with positive traits.
The Door-in-the-Face Technique
This is a compliance method commonly studied in social psychology. The technique involves making an unreasonably large request that is likely to be refused, followed by a smaller request that the requester is actually interested in. Studies have shown that this technique increases the likelihood of compliance with the second, smaller request due to a feeling of having been granted a concession by the requester.
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