Social Psychology: Part 1
Psy 301
Lecture 16
4/07/04
Five Lessons in Social Psychology
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Power of situation
Subjective construal
Fallibility of human reason
Presence of others matters
Can systematically study complex social
situations
“Punishment on Learning”
“Punishment on Learning”
• 1 teacher, 1 learner
– Learn word pairs; if wrong,
punished
• Set-up learner
– Chair, electrode on wrist
– “condition”
• Shock generator
– Slight, moderate, strong, very
strong, intense, extreme
intensity, danger: severe, XXX
• Sample- 45V
**Something you should know…
Script
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•
•
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75 volts: grunt
120 volts: complains loudly;
150: demands to be released from experiment
As voltage increases: protests become more
vehement and emotional
• 285 volts: agonized scream
• Soon thereafter: no sound at all
What would you do?
• Pre-test estimates: All would
refuse to obey
• Most won’t go beyond 150v
• Psychiatrists estimated
1/1000 would go all the way
– 4% would reach 300v
Results
• Avg. max shock delivered: 360v
• 65% went all the way to 450v
• 80% continued giving shocks after learner
w/ heart condition complained
**Video (short#4)**
Implications: Obedience to Authority
• An experimenter influenced ordinary ppl to commit
immoral acts on an innocent bystander…
• Could the Holocaust have been an act of ordinary
ppl exposed to extraordinary social conditions?
• Reverend Moon, 1983, 2075 couples?
– Parents? Teachers?
Replications
• 1st experiments: Yale undergraduates
“No relevance to "ordinary" people- Yale undergraduates = highly
aggressive, competitive bunch who step on each other's necks on
the slightest provocation.”
• White-collar workers, unemployed people, industrial
workers. SAME RATE
• Princeton, Munich, Rome, South Africa, and
Australia: ~85% obedience.
What’s going on?
• P’s caught in intense conflict btw. 2 forces
– Immediate obligation to complete experiment
(experimenter)
– Moral obligation to minimize human suffering
(learner)
• By varying strength of opposing forces…
Variations (on 65%)
• “Tuning in” learner
– Learner in same room- 40%
– Hand forced onto shock plate- 30%
• “Tuning out” experimenter
– Experimenter calls in instructions- 21%
– 2 Experimenters disagree- 0%
– 2 Rebellious supporters- 10%
Many of the people were in some sense against what they
did to the learner, and many protested even while they
obeyed. Some were totally convinced of the wrongness of
their actions but could not bring themselves to make an
open break with authority. They often derived satisfaction
from their thoughts and felt that -- within themselves, at
least -- they had been on the side of the angels. They tried
to reduce strain by obeying the experimenter but "only
slightly," encouraging the learner, touching the generator
switches gingerly. When interviewed, such a subject
would stress that he "asserted my humanity" by
administering the briefest shock possible. Handling the
conflict in this manner was easier than defiance.
Why do they Obey?
• Stepwise involvement
• Norm of reciprocity
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Ineffective disobedience
But Kate…
• Did they tell them the truth at the end?
• Video (debriefing)
Lighten the mood…
If you could do anything humanly
possible with complete assurance that
you would not be detected or held
responsible, what would you do?
11 categories of responses
• Aggression, charity, academic dishonesty, crime,
escapism, political activities, sexual behavior, social
disruption, interpersonal spying, travel, miscellaneous
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–
–
–
26% criminal
11% sexual
11% spying
“rob a bank” 15% of all responses
• 36% antisocial, 19% non-normative (violating social norms, no
harm, or help), 9% prosocial
• PRISONERS & COLLEGE STUDENTS!
“There are no rules…”
• Wanted: subjects for a psychology experiment
• There will be no opportunity to meet other
participants
• What do people do under extreme anonymity?
Deviance in the Dark
• Continuous stream of
conversation thru end
• Quickly found place to
sit- no less than 3ft to any
other
• 5% touched accidentally;
none purposefully
• 30% felt sexual
excitement
• Talk slacked off after 30
minutes; was muted,
disjointed & faltering
• Moved around fluidly
• All touched accidentally;
90% purposefully
• 50% hugged another
person
• 80% felt sexual excitement
Frequency of behaviors in light & dark
120
100
80
Dark Room
Light Room
60
40
20
0
Found
myself in
center of
Sexually
aroused
hugged
another
Prevented
touching
Touched
purposefully
Touched
accidentally
• Mass arrest for violation of Penal Codes 211, Armed
Robbery, and Burglary, a 459 PC.
• Suspects picked up at home, charged, warned of legal rights,
spread-eagled against the police car, searched, and handcuffed
Randomly Assigned!
• Video (roleplay short)
Lightened Again
• Getting people to do something good…
Water Conservation
• Setting: Highly chlorinated pool
• Poster on saving water
– Sign poster
– See poster
• Mindful: Excuse me, “About how long do you usually shower
for”
• Later, in the showers…
– Concealed stopwatch
– Who took the shortest showers?
WHY?
• Find out next time…
Social Psychology
• The scientific study of how people’s
thoughts feelings and behaviors are
influenced by the real or imagined presence
of others
= The
power of the situation