Very Cool Psychology Experiments

Post the ones you know!

Asch's Conformity Experiment



Stanford Prison Experiment

Google Video Link

Milgram Experiment

Google Video Link

Bonus: Candid Camera Elevator Comformity



Bonus: Men In Black scene: "Person is smart, people are dumb..."



[edit on 16-5-2009 by infobrazil]

Action /Inaction Taking cues from others .


Taking cues from others . hilarity ensues .




Attention experiment .

I need some help understanding the one in the church. Was it an experiment or for fun? I am kind of lost what was exactly happening as there was no description. Was it even an experiment or just normal practice for that sect of religious belief?

reply to post by infobrazil


Great post -heres a video similar to the one you posted
www.youtube.com...
Cheers.

Very interesting. I noticed most of the people were young. Is this why the military wants our young men...so they can indoctrinate them early? Most follow blindly what their authority figure tells them.

Edit to say that this most likely would have been me at a young age. Fortunately I have learned a little in my lifetime and can hold to my integrity much better, however, probably not as completely as I would like given the same circumstances.

[edit on 17-5-2009 by liveandlearn]

[edit on 17-5-2009 by liveandlearn]

The Rubber Hand Illusion

This is a good study in experimental psychology that's been further expanded to simulate 'out of body' experiences. In future, the cognitive processes involved should aid amputees to 'feel' with prosthetics. Pretty cool



The Psychologist News - Illusion help for amputees?

Flagged so that maybe people with uninformed opinions of psychology can have a look.

The group influense show in the first experiment can actully be seen right here on ATS

Power corrupts - give those "guards" tasers and see what happens..


The attention experiment was easy for me. Maybe it's because I play too much video games.

Thread flagged and starred. Awesome Contribution

Yep to agree 110 with Sky a very good collection of the main experiments that ALL ats members should become aware of, and use it to question their own thoughts, behaviour and motivations and beliefs.

Reclaim your power from those that use these psychological laws against you, from smarmy lying salesmen (not all salesmen are but some are to ) to the Zimbardo Prison and Authority findings before thinking going to war is good, or being disempowered!

Well done OP S+F to,

TO add this guy below though beat them at their own game



He really will be imho in the future seen in similar regards as Zimbardo et al are seen today...

Quite amazing his control and manipulation techniques...

The first step to regaining your power, is not to question others, but question yourself first

Kind Regards,

Elf.

reply to post by MischeviousElf


MischeviousElf, great post
Derren Brown is one of the most intelligent and thought provoking people working in entertainment today- I don't know if you've seen before but 'Evening of Wonders' is a great,great watch:

The internationally acclaimed psychological illusionist takes the theatre audience and viewers on a jaw-dropping, laugh-out-loud journey to a climax of the most astonishing mind-reading.

www.channel4.com...

Some of the links have been taken down by Youtube but I've always liked this one: www.metacafe.com...
Cheers.



[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

reply to post by TurkeyBurgers


It's very interesting, those people you see are most of the time very ridged conformists in their day to day lives - they're bankers, estate agents, house wives, etc but yet when they go to church the preacher sermonizes about 'speaking in tounges' which is a religious practice which predates christianity in which the devout are so taken by the POWER OF DA LOOOOOORRRRRRWWWAAARRRDDDD that they speak nonsense which only god can understand, the concept being that by transcending human limits we can truly be honest with god (yes i know gods cool enough to know what we mean anyway, he's suppose to know everything)). So everyone goes crazy and starts acing like drunken (i'm a drinker but i NEVER got THAT drunk i turned into one of them, and believe me i've tried ) fools.

Anyway there are a few non-religious ideas about this,

The science of mentalism answer would be that the authority figure slowly gets them into a state of religious hypnosis - the most common form of hypnosis, complete trust is placed in someone who has 'divine power' thus turning off any of the brains natural protection systems. The leader, a skilled speaker will then feed subliminal and proliminal messages to the crowd who mentally confused by their surroundings are more open to suggestions of how to act from their peers. The leader himself slowly provides a more idiosyncratic set of actions, those inside the crowd who are open to suggestion then begin to subtly (and subliminally) mimic his actions, the rest of the crowd who aren't entirely enticed by the leaders gentle hypnotism will take their cues from their peers. Over time the entire crowd will get rapped up in what is commonly known as 'religious fever' this is when the leader can make a crowd of otherwise sober people scream and dance in the pews or all hug in a massive grinning man chain.

A very interesting thing to notice which is very clear at the end of the video is the rythmic tonal undulations made by a large section of the crowd, this could quiet easily be as simple as a sexual response to the strange hormonal levels the devout are feeling but it could also just as easily be a form of harmonic communication, much like at a drum circle or battle cry. Almost all throughout history every group of people have developed some system of harmonization before hunting or going to war, think of the Vikings bashing their swords against their round shield or the famous All Black pregame dance -to scare the enemy is part of the reason but no doubt the mutual activity and unity of spirit helps the participants to move into a more effective 'attack mode' - humanity's most powerful and important trait is that we listen and learn from each other, even on a biological level.

As someone who knows well the bottom of a bottle i can assure you that without a question of a doubt the most important part of drinking is who you drink with. A pub or club is much like the church in the video, a group of people sit together and consume a mildly intoxicating substance for a length of time, slowly taking cues from each other they slip into a 'drunk state' -of course the physical effects of alcohol help to convince them that they are 'drunk' and so with the excuse of drunkness they allow themselves (on a subliminal level) to 'act up' - alcohol acting in the way of the preacher, hehe who would'a thunk it?

So anyway these people are raising the levels of certain brain chemicals, so i don't have to get into complex stuff i'm just going to call it 'The Happy Chemicals' but it's a very complex mix of dopamines, epinephrines, Serotonins, etc. The leader leads by acting a step further along the chain as it were, he seems to be having a whale of a time as if under the effects of a drug - the suggestive in the audience see him and follow suit, thus increasing their happychems which then convince the rest of the crowd that its the 'norm' to have these raised levels, the leader then pushes himself to a slightly more intoxicated level and the cycle repeats.

Basically these people are using a group psychosis to elevate happychem, much like how a group of people who are told they're on drugs despite being given sugar pills acts as if they're on drugs.

An interesting look at the built-in assumptions our brains make about the world. Dr. Ramachandran

Ames room illusion explained



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Optical illusion /


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Optical illusion


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Split Brain Experiment



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Ramachandran Mirror Box




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TurkeyBurgers
Nature boy answered your question better than i could , the `religious` videos inclusion, was very "tongue in cheek" of me.
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Not thread stealing but check this thread out :

www.abovetopsecret.com...

A book about Ninja Psychology, and Ninja mind tricks.

My 2 cents

Love&Light.

Jacob

reply to post by UmbraSumus


This is an interesting one

Psychological optical illusion:

The influence of culture and environment can have an effect on our visual perception - believe it or not. This theory was first explored by Robert Laws, a Scottish missionary working in Africa during the late 1800's. Take a look at the picture below - what you see will largely depend on where you live in the world. After that you have examined the picture, scroll below for a more detailed explanation.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7d6d06f59469.jpg[/atsimg]

So What Did You See - What is above the woman's head? When scientists showed a similar sketch to people from East Africa, nearly all the participants in the experiment said she was balancing a box or metal can on her head. In a culture containing few angular visual cues, the family is seen sitting under a tree. Westerners, on the other hand, are accustomed to the corners and boxlike shapes of architecture. They are more likely to place the family indoors and to interpret the rectangle above the woman's head as a window through which shrubbery can be seen".

www.abovetopsecret.com...
Cheers.

Since i am studying Psychology, these are very interesting, cheers.

S+F

reply to post by infobrazil


One could argue that these experiments viewed here in your post have been studied, taken to heart and are currently in use by the US Government as as Modus Operandi of both the Congress and recent and current Presidential Administrations as well as government on the state and local level as a means of getting away with the things that they do such as the bailouts/stimulus deals, control of GM and Chrysler.

The conformity experiment and conclusion of the good not speaking out against the bad in the prison experiment forming the basis of my statement. The old adage of all it takes for evil to succeed is for the good to do nothing.

I love the Milgram experiment, Derren Brown does a recreation of it as well.

Here's a rather simple one by Derren, that I found interesting.

Seems embedding is denied, you'll have to click the you tube link.



[edit on 17-5-2009 by Nola213]

Originally posted by UmbraSumus
Action /Inaction Taking cues from others .

Very similar, but a documented fact: Bystander Effect - Kitty Genovese


Richard Dawkin's - Nice Guys Finish First

Google Video Link

CBC The Human Behavior Experiments

www.livevideo.com...

part2:
www.livevideo.com...

Derren Brown messes with Simon Pegg's brain - classic stuff

www.videosift.com...

Originally posted by MischeviousElf
Yep to agree 110 with Sky a very good collection of the main experiments that ALL ats members should become aware of, and use it to question their own thoughts, behaviour and motivations and beliefs.

Reclaim your power from those that use these psychological laws against you, from smarmy lying salesmen (not all salesmen are but some are to

) to the Zimbardo Prison and Authority findings before thinking going to war is good, or being disempowered!

Well done OP S+F to,

TO add this guy below though beat them at their own game

He really will be imho in the future seen in similar regards as Zimbardo et al are seen today...

Quite amazing his control and manipulation techniques...

The first step to regaining your power, is not to question others, but question yourself first

Kind Regards,

Elf.

I'm sorry but Derren Brown is a magician, nothing more, nothing less. What you are watching on this video is a magic trick.

He does not have special powers, he very cleverly wraps a branch of magic called mentalism around NLP, etc.

Do not believe everything that you see on tv.