I think there's a certain suspension of disbelief here. Everyone knows wrestling is fake but we still react to it as if it was real (at least a lot of people do if you don't personally). The same could applies in these experiments. There's a certain trust associated with authority figures that we go along with and we're willing to believe things that we would normally know are false along with that trust. I'll use Obama as an example. He's a president. He's not going to make some radical change to the status quo. We all know that he's limited to the power of the presidential office and his political party (usually). But if you ask his supporters, I'd bet you would find a huge amount that believe in their hearts that he's going to change it all. A belief totally contrary to reality, but a belief that they will defend in any argument. Same here. Maybe that trust comes from a desire for approval from the authority figure. Maybe it's due to training as a child. Maybe it's due to an assumption that he knows what he's doing and/or is more knowledgeable than us. Maybe we're just submissive. Point is, I doubt that the 65% were faking. Maybe some of the 81% were, but...
Bottom line is that 2/3 of humanity are sheep. Even that last 1/3 will be sheep in certain situations. All you need to do is find the sheep trigger. -- Michael Dinowitz On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 3:05 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: > > The fatal flaw with a lot of these studies is determining whether the > subject *really* believed that they were going to cause serious harm > and/or death to the other person. Killing someone is illegal therefore > it is reasonable to believe that a game show (which will be shown on > television) would not really kill someone. As a participant, you may > not know or understand how the system is working, but the standard > appeal to authority is that someone must know what is going on and > they wouldn't really let you kill that other person, just like > everyone knows that pro wrestling is staged but don't necessarily know > how. It *looks* like they might kill each other hitting them over the > head with a folding chair but everyone knows it is pretend because if > it were real, it wouldn't be allowed. > > Judah > > On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 11:50 AM, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> Given that the Milgram experiment is so basic. I'm still surprised, or >> rather disappointed that people still fall for this. I recently read >> that the classic Migram study was replicated, with similar results. >> What's really amazing about those results is that the students who >> participated had recently finished a chapter on the social psychology >> of obedience and the Milgram study. In the 45 years or so since >> Milgram not much has changed. >> >> larry >> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:313666 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
