Chris Green, who no longer appears to be with us (was it something we said?), has flagged (elsewhere) an interesting study, here:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/shocking-experiment-money/ The point seems to be that you don't need a Milgram-type Nazi to get you to give shocks to someone else, only a little money. Hmm. I beg to disagree. I think the experimenters fail to give their subjects enough credit. They may even be smarter than the experimenters. I think they may have figured out that the study is a set-up, and no one is really going to get shocked. After all, who hasn't heard about Milgram these days or about devious experimenters. So they happily go along with the role-play and pretend to shock the "victim". The experimenters hand over the cash and no one gets hurt. Pretty good deal: the subjects get paid, and the experimenters get a paper. No one feels guilty. I bet the subjects even have the decency to pretend not to know it's all a fake when asked about it. (This also explains why seeing the face as well as the hand reaction reduces the amount earned. With the face, they may be a little less confident in their conclusion it's all a fake--but not by much.) Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=9875 or send a blank email to leave-9875-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
