Chris will be resurrecting on Easter Sunday. Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2011 11:55 PM
Subject: [tips] Shocking study (for cash)
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
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