The following links feature very important concepts in social psychology. Review Asch's, Milgram's and Zimbardo's classic studies and read up on the "bystander effect."
The Bystander Effect... what would you do?
This happened last year in NYC it looks like a 31 year-old Guatemalan man named Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was stabbed on the street in New York City and many pedestrians walked right past him as he died. You can read the story and see a surveillance video here.
Read more about the bystander effect here.
Asch's Conformity
Solomon Asch's conformity study showed how easily people will give an obviously wrong answer when other people are giving that same answer. Watch the video at the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRh5qy09nNw
Milgram's Obedience
Stanley Milgram's obedience study was recently partly replicated by ABC's Prime Time show. Watch how easily people follow orders even when they know the orders are wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwqNP9HRy7Y
Zimbardo's Prison Roles
Philip Zimbardo's experiment about how roles affect behavior is known as the "Stanford Prison Experiment." Those playing inmates became passive while those playing guards became aggressive. Subjects' real identities seemed to pale in comparison to the roles they played so much that the experiment had to be stopped after a few days. Who knows what would have happened if the experiment had gone on for two full weeks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmwSC5fS40w
2 comments:
http://youtu.be/but_Alh6_IA
Check this out!
War of the Worlds Giovanni G
In the radio drama War of the world’s broadcast left many Americans thinking that actual life forms from mercury were attacking America. Writers Howard Knoch and Anne Froelick were mainly responsive for the panic spread in west Windsor Township, New Jersey over a radio broadcast. The broadcast was announced at late night in October 30, 1938 (Halloween) a perfect night for a fright. Strange lights in the sky, aliens coming from mercury and attacking America, left many Americans in New Jersey to believe everything they just heard was all real.
The experiment showed just how well the human mind reacts to certain situations. The broadcast was heard over the radio just after War War 2 the aftermath of that war still left many Americans frighten and in fear that another disaster like that can occur again. Reports on the panic showed that some who panic thought that Germans were the ones attacking instead of the aliens. Robert E. Bartholomew says that “the action that people took was based on their fear scant and anecdotal” I believe this to be true. Seeing people panic over what they hear over the radio and knowing that it was fictional, still made them panic and have outburst over the town. The fear that they had already build in their minds lead them to believe that the invasion was very real.
An experiment like this can be applied to those who have come back from wars and to people who have had bad experiences. For example fireworks being shoot up to the skies can make a veteran think that its shootings from the war. Having certain condescend already to them are like a reflex that is learned and done unconcisely by the human mind. Many people today have conditions that are already set in their minds to believe. Like when their taking a shower and hear the toilet flush they back up cause they know cold water will come out. This experiment shows that the human mind takes situations that happened and have you believe that hearing things or seeing something will make that situation happen again.
This assignment has made me go more in depth in this panic caused by a broadcast in October 30, 1938 It has showed me how exactly the human mind could work when it comes to situations that are already put in our minds to believe. Like the fact how people believed that German soldiers were attacking America instead of the supposed aliens from mercury. I found this assignment interesting to do research on.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio)
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/warofworlds.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0617_050617_warworlds.html
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