The most famous psychological experiments on people

Various scientific experiments began to be carried out by scientists in the middle of the 19th century. Erroneous are those who are convinced that the role of experimental rabbits in such studies rests solely on animals. People often become participants, and sometimes victims of experiments. Which of the experiments became known to millions, forever went down in history? Consider a list of the most notorious.

Psychological experiments: Albert and rat

One of the most controversial experiences of the last century was conducted by John Watson in 1920. This professor is attributed to the foundation of the behavioral direction in psychology, he devoted much time to studying the nature of phobias. The psychological experiments conducted by Watson are mostly related to watching the emotions of babies.

Once a participant in his research became an orphaned boy Albert, who at the time of the beginning of the experiment turned 9 months old. On his example, the professor tried to prove that many phobias appear in people at an early age. His goal was to get Albert to feel fear at the sight of a white rat, with which the kid played with pleasure.

Like many psychological experiments, working with Albert took a long time. For two months the child was shown a white rat, and then showed objects visually similar to it (cotton wool, white rabbit, artificial beard). Then the baby was allowed to return to his games with a rat. Initially, Albert did not feel fear, quietly interacted with her. The situation changed when Watson, during his games with the beast, began to hit the metal with a hammer, causing a loud knock at the orphan's back.

As a result, Albert began to be afraid to touch the rat, the fear did not disappear even after he was separated from the animal for a week. When he was again shown an old friend, he burst into tears. A similar reaction was demonstrated by the child at the sight of objects resembling a small animal. Watson was able to prove his theory, but Albert's phobia remained for life.

Combating Racism

Of course, Albert is by no means the only child who was subjected to cruel psychological experiments. Examples (with children) lead easily, say, the experience, conducted in 1970 by Jane Elliott, dubbed "Blue and Brown Eyes." The schoolteacher, being impressed by the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., decided to demonstrate to her charges the horrors of racial discrimination in practice. Her subjects were students of the third class.

She divided the class into groups whose members were chosen according to the color of the eyes (brown, blue, green), and then suggested treating the brown-eyed children as representatives of an inferior race that did not deserve respect. Of course, the experiment cost the teacher a job, the public was outraged. In angry letters addressed to the former teacher, people asked how she could do so ruthlessly with white children.

Artificial prison

It is curious that far from all the known cruel psychological experiments on people were originally conceived as such. Among them, a special place is occupied by the research of employees of Stanford University, which has received the name "artificial prison". Scientists did not even guess how destructive for the psyche of the subjects would be an "innocent" experiment, set in 1971, authored by Philip Zimbardo.

The psychologist intended, through his research, to understand the social norms of people who had lost their freedom. To do this, he selected a group of volunteer students, consisting of 24 participants, then locked them in the basement of the psychological faculty, which was to serve as a kind of prison. Half of the volunteers took on the role of prisoners, the rest acted as overseers.

It's amazing, but the "prisoners" did not take very long to feel like real prisoners. The same participants in the experiment, which got the role of supervisors, began to demonstrate real sadistic inclinations, inventing more and more new mockery of their wards. Experience had to be interrupted before the planned time in order to avoid psychological trauma. In total, people stayed in the "prison" for a little over a week.

Boy or girl

Psychological experiments on people often end tragically. Proof of this is the sad story of a boy named David Reimer. Even in infancy, he underwent an unsuccessful circumcision operation, as a result of which the child almost lost his sexual organ. This was used by the psychologist John Mani, who dreamed of proving that children are not born boys and girls, but become such as a result of upbringing. He persuaded parents to consent to a surgical change of the sex of the child, and then treat him like a daughter.

Little David got Brenda's name, until he was 14, he was not informed that he was a male representative. In adolescence, the boy was given estrogen, the hormone had to activate the growth of the breast. Learning the truth, he took the name of Bruce, refused to behave like a girl. Already in adulthood, Bruce suffered several operations, the purpose of which was the restoration of physical signs of sex.

Like many other well-known psychological experiments, this one had terrible consequences. For some time Bruce tried to improve his life, even married and adopted the children of his wife. However, the psychological trauma born in childhood did not pass without a trace. After several unsuccessful attempts to commit suicide, the man managed to lay hands on himself, he died at the age of 38. The life of his parents, who suffered from what was happening in the family, was also ruined. The father turned into an alcoholic, the mother also committed suicide.

Nature of stammering

The list of psychological experiments, of which children have become participants, should be continued. In 1939, Professor Johnson, with the support of a graduate student, Maria, decided to conduct an interesting study. The scientist has set himself the goal of proving that in the stammering of children, parents are primarily to blame, who "convince" their children that they are stutterers.

To conduct the study, Johnson assembled a group, which included more than twenty children from orphanages. The participants in the experiment were told that they had problems with speech, which were actually absent. As a result, almost all the children withdrew into themselves, began to avoid contact with others, they actually had a stammer. Of course, after the end of the study, the children were helped to get rid of speech problems.

Many years later, some of the members of the group, most affected by the actions of Professor Johnson, was awarded a large cash compensation paid by the state of Iowa. It was proved that a cruel experiment became a source of serious psychological trauma for them.

Milgram experience

There were other interesting psychological experiments on people. The list can not be enriched with the famous research that Stanley Milgram conducted in the last century. The psychologist at Yale University tried to study the features of the mechanism of subordination to authority. The scientist has tried to understand whether a person is really capable of doing things that are not characteristic of him, if the person who is his boss insists on this.

Participants in the experiment Milgram made his own students who treated him with respect. One of the members of the group (the student) should answer the questions of others who alternately acted as teachers. If the student was wrong, the teacher had to hit him with an electric shock, so it continued until the questions ended. In this case, as an apprentice acted an actor, who only played the suffering from getting discharges of current, which was not told to other participants in the experiment.

Like other psychological experiments on people, the list of which is given in this article, the experience provided amazing results. The study involved 40 students. Only 16 of them succumbed to the pleas of the actor, who asked to stop beating him with current for mistakes, the rest successfully continued to discharge ranks, obeying the order of Milgram. When they were asked what caused them to inflict suffering on a stranger, not suspecting that he really was not in pain, the students did not find an answer. In fact, the experiment demonstrated the dark side of human nature.

Landis research

Psychological experiments on people were similar to Milgram's experience. Examples of such studies are quite numerous, but the work of Carney Landis, dating back to 1924, was the most famous. The psychologist was interested in human emotions, he put a series of experiments, trying to identify the common features of the expression of certain emotions in different people.

Volunteer participants in the experiment were mostly students, whose faces were painted with black lines, which make it possible to better see the movement of the facial muscles. The students were shown pornographic materials, forced them to smell the substances endowed with a repulsive smell, to lower their hands into a vessel filled with frogs.

The most difficult stage of the experiment was the killing of rats, which the participants were told to decapitate themselves. Experience has yielded amazing results, like many other psychological experiments on people, examples of which you are now reading. About half of the volunteers flatly refused to obey the order of the professor, while the others coped with the task. Ordinary people who had never before exhibited cravings for the torture of animals, obeying the order of the teacher, cut off the living rats of the head. The study did not allow us to determine the universal mimic movements characteristic of all people, but it demonstrated the dark side of human nature.

Combating homosexuality

A list of the most famous psychological experiments will not be complete without the brutal experience set in 1966. In the 60's, the struggle against homosexuality became very popular, it's no secret that people in those days were being treated forcibly from the interest in the representatives of their own sex.

The 1966 experiment was put on a group of people who were suspected of homosexual inclinations. Participants in the experiment were forced to view homosexual pornography while simultaneously charging them with electric discharges. It was assumed that such actions should develop in people aversion to intimate contact with persons of their own sex. Of course, all the members of the group received a psychological trauma, one of them even died, unable to withstand numerous current beats. It was not possible to find out whether the experience was reflected in the orientation of homosexuals.

Teens and gadgets

Psychological experiments on people at home are often put, but only a few of such experiments become known. A study was carried out a few years ago, whose voluntary participants were ordinary teenagers. Schoolchildren were asked for 8 hours to refuse all modern gadgets, including from a mobile phone, laptop, TV. At the same time they were not forbidden to go out for a walk, read, draw.

Other psychological experiments (at home) did not impress the public as much as this study. The results of the experiment showed that only three of its participants managed to survive the 8-hour "torture". The other 65 "broke down", they had thoughts of leaving, they faced panic attacks. Also, children complained of symptoms such as dizziness, nausea.

Witness effect

It is interesting that high-profile crimes can also become an incentive for scientists who conduct psychological experiments. Real examples are easy to recall, say, the "Witness Effect" experiment, delivered in 1968 by two professors. John and Bibb were struck by the behavior of numerous witnesses who watched the murder of the girl Kitty Genovese. The crime was committed in front of dozens of people, but no one made an attempt to stop the killer.

John and Bibb invited the volunteers to spend some time in the Columbia University auditorium , assuring them that their task is to fill in the papers. A few minutes later the room was filled with smoke-free smoke. Then the same experience was conducted with a group of people gathered in one audience. Then, instead of smoke, records with cries of help were used.

Other psychological experiments, the examples of which are given in the article, were much more brutal, however the experience of the "Witness effect" along with them went down in history. Scientists managed to establish that a person who is alone, much more quickly turns for help or renders it than a group of people, even if there are only two or three participants in it.

Be like everyone else

In our country, during the existence of the Soviet Union, curious psychological experiments were conducted on people. The USSR is a state in which for many years it was customary not to stand out from the crowd. Not surprisingly, many of the experiences of that time were devoted to the study of the desire of the average person to be like everyone else.

Participants of fascinating psychological research became children of different ages. For example, a group of 5 guys was invited to try rice porridge, which was positively treated by all members of the team. Four children were fed sweet porridge, then came the turn of the fifth participant, who received a portion of tasteless salty porridge. When these guys were asked if they liked the dish, most of them gave an affirmative answer. So it turned out because before that all their comrades praised the porridge, and the children wanted to be like everyone else.

Also other classical psychological experiments were put on children. For example, a group of several participants were offered to name the black pyramid white. Only one child was not warned in advance, he was asked about the color of the toys last. Having listened to the answers of their comrades, most of the uninformed kids assured that the black pyramid is white, thus following the crowd.

Experiments with animals

Of course, not only people are put on classical psychological experiments. The list of high-profile studies that have gone down in history will not be complete, if we do not mention the experience of monkeys in 1960. The experiment was called "The Source of Desperation", its author was Harry Harlow.

The scientist was interested in the problem of social isolation of a person, he was looking for ways to protect himself from it. In his studies, Harlow did not use humans, but monkeys, more precisely the young of these animals. The babies were taken away from their mother, locked alone in cages. The participants of the experiment were only animals whose emotional connection with the parents did not cause doubts.

Monkey cubs at the will of a cruel professor spent in the cage for a year, not getting the slightest "portion" of communication. As a result, most of these prisoners developed obvious mental abnormalities. The scientist was able to confirm his theory that even a happy childhood can not save the depressions. At the moment, the results of the experiment are considered insignificant. In the sixties the professor received many letters from animal advocates, unwittingly made the movement of fighters for the rights of our younger brothers more popular.

Acquired helplessness

Of course, other great psychological experiments were conducted on animals. For example, in 1966, a scandalous experience was given, known as "Acquired helplessness." Psychologists Mark and Steve used dogs in their studies. The animals were locked in cages, then they began to hurt with the help of current strikes, which they received abruptly. Gradually, the dogs had symptoms of "acquired helplessness", which resulted in clinical depression. Even after they were moved to open cells, they did not flee from the ongoing current strikes. Animals preferred to endure pain, convinced of its inevitability.

Scientists have found that the behavior of dogs in many respects is similar to the behavior of people who have experienced several times a failure in a particular case. They are also helpless, ready to put up with their bad luck.