> http://www.cracked.com/article_16239_p2.html
>
> 5 Psychological Experiments That Prove Humanity is Doomed
>
> By Alexandra Gedrose
>
> The Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)
>
> The Setup:
>
> Psychologist Philip Zimbardo wanted to find out how captivity affects
> authorities and inmates in prison. Sounds innocent enough. Seriously,
> what could go wrong?
>
> Zimbardo transformed the Stanford Psychology Department's basement
> into a mock prison. Subjects volunteered by simply responding to a
> newspaper ad ...
>
>
> ... and then passing a test proving good health and high-quality
> mental stability, which are very important factors in deciding who
> goes to prison. These volunteers were all male college students who
> were then divided arbitrarily into 12 guards and 12 prisoners.
> Zimbardo himself decided that he wanted to play too, and elected
> himself Prison Superintendent. The simulation was planned to run for
> two weeks.
>
> Yep, nothing at all can go wrong with this.
>
> The Result:
>
> It took about one day for every subject to suddenly go as insane as a
> shit-house rat. On only the second day, prisoners staged a riot in the
> faux detention center, with prisoners barricading their cells with
> their beds and taunting the guards. The guards saw this as a pretty
> good excuse to start squirting fire extinguishers at the insurgents
> because, hey, why the hell not?
>
> From that point on, the Stanford Prison that had already gone to hell,
> just continued to ricochet around in hell for day after day. Some
> guards began forcing inmates to sleep naked on the concrete,
> restricting the bathroom as a privilege (one that was often denied).
> They forced prisoners to do humiliating exercises and had them clean
> toilets with their bare hands.
>
> Incredibly, when "prisoners" were told they had a chance at parole,
> and then the parole was denied, it didn't occur to them to simply ask
> out of the damned experiment. Remember they had absolutely no legal
> reason to be imprisoned, it was just a damned role-playing exercise.
> This fact continued to escape them as they sat naked in their own
> filth, with bags on their heads.
>
> Over 50 outsiders had stopped to observe the prison, but the morality
> of the trial was never questioned until Zimbardo's girlfriend,
> Christina Maslach, strongly objected. After only six days, Zimbardo
> put a halt to the experiment (several of the "guards" expressed
> disappointment at this). If you were about to applaud Maslach as the
> only sane person involved in this clusterfuck, you should know that
> she went on to marry Zimbardo, the guy who orchestrated the whole
> thing.
>
> What This Says About You:
>
> Ever been harassed by a cop who acted like a major douchebag, pushing
> you around for no reason? Science says that if the roles were
> reversed, you'd likely act the same way.
>
> As it turns out, it's usually fear of repercussion that keeps us from
> torturing our fellow human beings. Give us absolute power over
> somebody and a blank check from our superiors, and Abu Ghraib-esque
> naked pyramids are sure to follow. Hey, if it can happen to a bunch of
> Vietnam-era hippie college students, it sure as hell could happen to
> you.
>
>
> The Milgram Experiment (1961)
>
> The Setup:
>
> When the prosecution of the Nazis got underway at the Nuremberg
> Trials, many of the defendants' excuse seemed to revolve around the
> ideas of, "I'm not really a prick" and, "Hey man, I was just following
> orders." Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram wanted to test
> willingness of subjects to obey an authority figure. Maybe he could
> just, you know, ask people? Oh, hell no. That would not be nearly
> horrifying enough.
>
> Instead he ran an experiment where the subject was told he was a
> "teacher" and that his job was to give a memory test to another
> subject, located in another room. The whole thing was fake and the
> other subject was an actor.
>
> The subject was told that whenever the other guy gave an incorrect
> answer, he was to press a button that would give him an electric
> shock. A guy in a lab coat was there to make sure he did it (again no
> real shock was being delivered, but the subject of course did not know
> this).
>
> The subject was told that the shocks started at 45 volts and would
> increase with every wrong answer. Each time they pushed the button,
> the actor on the other end would scream and beg for the subject to
> stop.
>
> So, can you guess how this went?
>
> The Result:
>
> Many subjects began to feel uncomfortable after a certain point, and
> questioned continuing the experiment. However, each time the guy in
> the lab coat encouraged them to continue. Most of them did, upping the
> voltage, delivering shock after shock while the victim screamed. Many
> subjects would laugh nervously, because laughter is the best medicine
> when pumping electrical currents through another person's body.
>
> Eventually the actor would start banging on the wall that separated
> him from the subject, pleading about his heart condition. After
> further shocks, all sounds from victim's room would cease, indicating
> he was dead or unconscious. If you had to guess, what percentage of
> the subjects kept delivering shocks after that point?
>
> Five percent? Ten?
>
> Between 61 and 66 percent of subjects would continue the experiment
> until it reached the maximum voltage of 450, continuing to deliver
> shocks after the victim had been zapped into unconsciousness or the
> afterlife. Repeated studies have shown the same result: Subjects will
> mindlessly deliver pain to an innocent stranger as long as a dude in a
> lab coat says it's OK.
>
> Most subjects wouldn't begin to object until after 300-volt shocks.
> Zero of them asked to stop the experiment before that point (keep in
> mind 100 volts is enough to kill a man, in some cases).
>
> What This Says About You:
>
> You might like to think of yourself as a free-thinking marauder, but
> when it comes down to it, odds are you won't stick it to The Man
> because of the fear The Man will stick it right back up your ass. And
> this was just a guy in a lab coat--imagine if he'd had a uniform, or a
> badge.
>
> Charles Sheridan and Richard King took this experiment one step
> further, but asked subjects to shock a puppy for every incorrect
> action it made. Unlike Milgram's experiment, this shock was real.
> Exactly 20 out of 26 subjects went to the highest voltage.
>
> Almost 80 percent. Think about that when you're walking around the
> mall: Eight out of ten of those people you see would torture the shit
> out of a puppy if a dude in a lab coat asked them to.
>