Blind obedience is bad...

[PlasmaBomb]

Game of Death

Contestants were asked to zap a man they believed was another contestant whenever he failed to answer a question correctly - with increasingly powerful shocks of up to 380 volts.

No one expected this result...

Much as I don't come into P&N, this seems to count as News...

I guess the take home message is that blind faith in authority can be misplaced, after all they needn't have your best interests at heart...

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Anyone that didn't expect that result never took Psych 101.

 

[Atreus21]

Game of Death



Much as I don't come into P&N, this seems to count as News...

I guess the take home message is that blind faith in authority can be misplaced, after all they needn't have your best interests at heart...

Well you can't fault people...well you can't fault them ENTIRELY when they've been misled and manipulated from the outset.

It's no surprise that a malicious person can take advantage of people's trust.

 

[Fear No Evil]

Stupid Frenchys.. French people torture themselves. Americans are smart enough to just torture terrorists.

 

[MJinZ]

What a retarded study. It doesn't actually mean anything, since everyone signed up to get shocked and people probably assumed (correctly) that you can not kill people that way on TV.

 

[Sclamoz]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Stupid Frenchys.. French people torture themselves. Americans are smart enough to just torture terrorists.

Troll. Tell that to the innocent people we tortured. And read up on the Milgram experiment. You will learn all about yourself, since you are in the 60% in the study.

Ironic that you are the exact opposite of your username. It should be Fear everything.

 

[WHAMPOM]

Stupid Frenchys.. French people torture themselves. Americans are smart enough to just torture terrorists.

A sixth grade education is the only thing that can explain the ignorance of what you post on his forum. You have no knowledge of studies done in the USA concerning people's willingness to to torture others when given orders to do so?

 

[shira]

Stupid Frenchys.. French people torture themselves. Americans are smart enough to just torture terrorists.

Au contraire, tu troll ignorant. Vos messages sont de purs actes de torture à toute personne ayant un QI supérieur à un concombre.

 

[DesiPower]

Anyone that didn't expect that result never took Psych 101.

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals

 

[Juncar]

We learned this in Sociology 101, read up on Milgram experiment.

 

[Moonbeam]

Blind obedience is what we beat into our children, for their own good, of course.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

The real scary thing here is, if 60% or more of folks will potentially kill someone from just being told to, what percentage of folks are doing things far less extreme everyday just because they are being told to? Obey your master.

 

[shira]

The real scary thing here is, if 60% or more of folks will potentially kill someone from just being told to, what percentage of folks are doing things far less extreme everyday just because they are being told to? Obey your master.

I'm not sure how much one can generalize from these sorts of experiments. Imagine a similar experiment in which a "contestant" is given a loaded gun and shown that it contains real, live bullets. Does anyone REALLY think that the contestant would shoot another contestant in the hand, arm, midsection, and finally between the eyes simply because the game-show MC and audience egged the contestant on? I think not.

How about a contestant given a large, very sharp knife? Think they'd cut off a person's finger, hand, arm and fiinally head, simply because they can win a prize and are being urged to violence? Not likely.

There are some valid, not very nice things that can be inferred about human nature from this experiment, but humans aren't quite as horrible as the experiment makes them out to be.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I disagree, humans are every bit as horrible as this makes them out to be. Look at the manipulation that goes on everyday on a mass scale. What folks buy, who they vote for, what they feed their kids. It all looks so normal to the general populace, yet there is active manipulation occurring completely overtly, leading people to otherwise do what they wouldn't do, things that on their face can be detrimental to themselves and others. But it's perfectly accepted because some celebrity endorses it, some government proclaims it, some company says horrible things will happen without it.

Obey, never question why, just do what you're told and you'll be OK. Push this button. Buy this product. Take this pill. It's just a little thing, it's not like you're shooting someone in the head.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Game of Death



Much as I don't come into P&N, this seems to count as News...

I guess the take home message is that blind faith in authority can be misplaced, after all they needn't have your best interests at heart...

So old not even *I* was born when these kinds of tests were first published.

You'll do what is expected of you or you are someone like me.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Blind obedience is what we beat into our children, for their own good, of course.

No.

I've never laid a hand on my children and anyone who meet them would agree that they are good people (i almost said children, but they aren't children anymore).

Respect cannot be beaten in, only fear can and fear only lasts as long as you have something to fear. I'm a fucking one man study for how that works.

 

[her209]

I'm not sure how much one can generalize from these sorts of experiments. Imagine a similar experiment in which a "contestant" is given a loaded gun and shown that it contains real, live bullets. Does anyone REALLY think that the contestant would shoot another contestant in the hand, arm, midsection, and finally between the eyes simply because the game-show MC and audience egged the contestant on? I think not.

How about a contestant given a large, very sharp knife? Think they'd cut off a person's finger, hand, arm and fiinally head, simply because they can win a prize and are being urged to violence? Not likely.

There are some valid, not very nice things that can be inferred about human nature from this experiment, but humans aren't quite as horrible as the experiment makes them out to be.

What if you told the contestant this person was a very bad person. That they sexually abused children. That they had plans to kill thousands of people.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

A sixth grade education is the only thing that can explain the ignorance of what you post on his forum. You have no knowledge of studies done in the USA concerning people's willingness to to torture others when given orders to do so?

Your complete lack of an education in the way the real world is is the only thing that can explain your ignorance. You think people outside or even inside of the US are baking cookies and singing kumbaya and just talking about the good old days. There are people fully intent on destroying the US and what it stands for, including the current ruling regime. Then there are others that are willing to do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.

 

[daishi5]

I'm not sure how much one can generalize from these sorts of experiments. Imagine a similar experiment in which a "contestant" is given a loaded gun and shown that it contains real, live bullets. Does anyone REALLY think that the contestant would shoot another contestant in the hand, arm, midsection, and finally between the eyes simply because the game-show MC and audience egged the contestant on? I think not.

How about a contestant given a large, very sharp knife? Think they'd cut off a person's finger, hand, arm and fiinally head, simply because they can win a prize and are being urged to violence? Not likely.

There are some valid, not very nice things that can be inferred about human nature from this experiment, but humans aren't quite as horrible as the experiment makes them out to be.

I think our culture has restrained our horrible side, but I am sure that humans are not kind empathetic and caring by nature. Look at the atrocities comitted in africa in recent years, neighbors attacking each other with machetes. However, the cultural restriction is very strong.

I think one important detail was that the test subjects could not see the person they were shocking. The other problem is I doubt any of them knew enough about electricity to understand what the shocks they were giving could do to a person. So, they could not see the victim to know how much they hurt him, and they didn't understand the tool they were using to hurt him. They could hear the victim, but at the same time, they have a cheering crowd and the MC, not to mention the victim may be a horrible actor. I wonder if the contestants would have reacted differently if the victim was actually being hurt, and was crying out in real pain. Perhaps they could tell the difference, even if it wasn't concious.

The problem is, to test a lof of these theories, would require violating ethical principles. So, tests like this are all we have.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Your complete lack of an education in the way the real world is is the only thing that can explain your ignorance. You think people outside or even inside of the US are baking cookies and singing kumbaya and just talking about the good old days. There are people fully intent on destroying the US and what it stands for, including the current ruling regime. Then there are others that are willing to do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.

Please inform us of who is capable of "destroying the US".

So I guess you tell your kids it is OK to break the law, as long as someone else does it first. Or since OJ got away with killing his wife, it's OK for everyone else. Or maybe that if someone else cheats at a game, it's OK for you too.

Or how about letting the police beat up all suspects in all criminal investigations, since they need to make sure they get the right person. What's wrong with that? Better yet, why don't you support police torture of all suspects? I guess you have never heard of a concept called honor, or the concept that one doesn't need to sink to the level of their adversary to win.

Basically, you are trying to make yourself feel good about breaking the law. Well done. Does it make you sleep better at night?

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

I'm not sure how much one can generalize from these sorts of experiments. Imagine a similar experiment in which a "contestant" is given a loaded gun and shown that it contains real, live bullets. Does anyone REALLY think that the contestant would shoot another contestant in the hand, arm, midsection, and finally between the eyes simply because the game-show MC and audience egged the contestant on? I think not.

How about a contestant given a large, very sharp knife? Think they'd cut off a person's finger, hand, arm and fiinally head, simply because they can win a prize and are being urged to violence? Not likely.

There are some valid, not very nice things that can be inferred about human nature from this experiment, but humans aren't quite as horrible as the experiment makes them out to be.

Read this and be prepared to be disturbed:

Stanford Prison experiment

 

[Fenixgoon]

We learned this in Sociology 101, read up on Milgram experiment.

yep. any sociology or psychology class will most likely cover this.