>>
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.
>>
