Listen to a Stranger
Common behaviours of people - would you follow instructions from someone who was a stranger, just because they were telling you?
Follow the Marble
They constructed the pieces to create a path for the marble that winds and loops. (Appologies for the belch halfway through (grr).
Online Dating Fibbing Men
Online dating is a strange phenomenon. What if people misrepresent what they look like? How do their dates respond?
Online Dating Fibbing Women - Social Experiment
When a woman shows up for a blind date from an online dating site but looks nothing like her photo. We've discussed one of the errors in the Attribution Theory - the idea of Primacy Effect. Once we have already established an impression of someone, even when confronted with opposing information we are slow to change our impression. These people, having exchanged emails and photos, would have established an impression of what each other were like. Even when confronted with a completely different person, some of them are uncertain and just continue on, or they are confused at the very least. Is this a benefit with online dating - that impressions formed by attractiveness only counts for so much but the interaction through emails etc draws the majority of interest from their personality instead? Maybe this is a way to get away from those impressions formed initially by looks, since we in generally are so apt to do that.
social behaviour primacy effect psychology impressions attribution theory keenermarc
Derren Brown's Recreation of the Milgram Experiment
No copyright infringement intended. The Milgram Experiment in the 1960s became a famous experiment for what it proved about human behaviour - that all individuals are willing to follow authority, almost without question, even though it may mean inflicting great pain or doing things that they, as an individual of their own doing, would never do. This video is of Derren Brown's recreation of the experiment and, in it, you can see the tension and personal conflict of participants in trying to decide whether to continue and inflict pain on another human being or walk away from the experiment. Milgram's original hypothesis was that only 3% of participants would inflict the potentially fatal shocks upon "the learner", but an astounding 65% continued with the shocking "because they were instructed to by an authority figure". People are amazing objects of study!
Moral Pharmacist - Social Experiment
When a pharmacist refuses to fill a young girl's prescription for contraceptives, the others in the waiting room react. The conflict for them is whether he has the right to refuse her based on his morals? From a social psychology point of view, this video is a good exploration of Attitudes, how they are formed and what function they serve the people in this experiment. Our attitudes are part of our Emotional Aspect of Being, are patterns of beliefs and values and shape our future actions. There are three types of Attitudes (A, B, C: Affectively based (emotional), Behaviourally based (observing behaviours of others) and Cognitively based (reacting with our rational thoughts over our emotions). We've learned, also, that Attitudes are very much linked to Motivation - they help us gain approval or acceptance of others, help us make sense of our surroundings, protect ourselves from uncomfortable truths around us, and help us demonstrate our own unique ideas and values. In this video, it is interesting that some feel more comfortable expressing showing their attitude, either directly to the young girl(s) or to the pharmacist himself. Others only share an attitude after the confrontation has passed. For this particular situation, with the young girls (actresses) being only 16, there is also a conflict for people in their values - they may believe a woman has the right to take care of herself and the pharmacist has no right to refuse her that, but they may also disagree with the <b>...</b>
social psychology attitudes beliefs values experiment cognitive dissonance moral conflict keenermarc
Bystander Effect - people watch girl being abducted
When there's only one person around in a situation, they're much more likely to lend assistance to people in need, whether it's to help pick up something they're dropped or something more important like warn them they're about to step into traffic, etc. When there's a group of people, though, no one acts. They all expect someone else will do it, so no one volunteers or pauses. This is honestly a chilling video to watch. I don't have kids but it catches my breath when the two men catch on that something's going on and without any verbal communication between them, only similar body language (ie their mutual movement in that direction) it's amazing to me that, while they're both intently watching the man they are approaching, there is a single second when they Both launch into action, again without communicating anything verbally, but something triggers the same response from both men. How fascinating! It reminds me of wild lions in Africa who are following their prey but something simultaneously all animals involved and they leap to action. I'm teaching a Social Psychology class right now and am really getting intrigued by the idea of how we send and receive communication without speaking. What is it about that situation that influenced those men though others around them didn't bother? And what was it in that single second where they both jump into a run? Was it that the man let the girl's arm go and started to run off himself? It's amazing to me. See what you think? I <b>...</b>
bystander effect social psychology human behaviour keenermarc
Girl forced into poligamy marriage - would you help?
We're studying biological influences in social behaviour right now. We behave in different ways based on the stimulus in an environment, but regardless of that stimulus it has to go through the brain. That information is input into the brain, processed and encoded where you take that observation or what's been perceived by the senses and you attached some meaning to it... either background knowledge related to the stimulus or a prior experience. You can find a value in that stimulus or have a memory that is similar. Based on whatever you've got for experience at that point, then, your resuting behaviour will be different from others, though somewhat expected in some situations. In watching this video last night on tv, though, I sat perched on the side of my couch watching and as wrapped up in the show as I was I was more shocked at how much of a physical reaction I had in watching it. I was sick to my stomach watching and realized I had huge, crocodile tears forming in my eyes. Now I knew this was all a set up, that it's a simulated situation, and the input is very limited in this case... there's no sense of touch or a physical closeness to the situation that would cause me to feel threatened or anxious but I felt it just the same. And why? Because when I encoded that information I was able to related it to other personal experiences where I've felt as threatened or conflicted in a moment. Now to share this with my students this morning, I anticipated that they may get <b>...</b>
social psychology behaviour brain sensory perception poligamy bystander effect keenermarc
Shopping While Black - Social Experiment
This experiment turns into a pretty emotional one. While some people are unaffected by the discrimination they observe, others are completely offended on behalf of the victim. One man who objects to her treatment can relate because of his own experiences, but other people (two different white women) seem completely offended by the idea that anyone would be treated in such a way. Consider (though we haven't talked about this year) what is it about some people that makes them step forward on behalf of a stranger? Some people are content to witness something in their surroundings but are somewhat unaffected by it, while others are compelled to act. What is the motivating factor? Could it have anything to do with each person's place in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, maybe? The stronger ones who are higher in the chart, closer to self-actualization, may feel more comfortable stepping forward while others, less secure in themselves and their level of needs, stand back? If the basis for Maslow's needs is that people act to remove deficiencies or continually move up in the levels, what's the motivating factor when the person themselves are not in danger? Ie: If you want to move to step three (social needs) and therefore have attained safety / security, would you feel threatened personally if someone near you were in (a type of ) danger like this woman? Or maybe they're at the fourth level (esteem needs) and taking responsibility of their surroundings. You may notice, as well, the <b>...</b>
social behaviour psychology experiment cognitive emotional motivation maslows hierarchy of needs keenermarc
Baby Left in Car - Social Experiment
Observing the behaviour of people who pass by a vehicle with a baby locked in the car. (Staged) This would connect with both the Physical Aspect of Being and the Emotional. We know that, in several ways, the body and mind works to maintain the status quo or balance(homeoestasis) so it is interesting to see people who seeminly are uninvolved or unaffected by this situation get involved and become a part of the situation. What Motivates them? Their intrinsic cognitive motivation where they do it for their own purposes (intrinsic) and mentally recognize a threat (to someone else in this case) but they cognitively try to eliminate the threat or risk to the infant. Maybe, by recognizing a threat to another human being, especially one who cannot protect themselves, they themselves feel threatened and feel compelled, by instinct? to act? Who knows... We've also learned that emotions are different from feelings. While emotions are more intense and momentary, feelings are longer-lasting and more general. The reactions these "advocates" have are straight emotional ones - intense states. Does it seem like the man was able to calm down more quickly than the woman, after they were debriefed? We learned that the male parasympathetic nervous system responds more quickly than a womans - that fight / flight system kicks in but can calm a man down more quickly. So much to consider... now that we've been studying this course!! Question: How do you think the actress playing the reckless <b>...</b>
social behaviour fight flight nervous system emotion vs feelings psychology keenermarc
Brandon's introduction of a relative...
Brandon was one who did a pretty good job of staying focused during his presentation and giving it a more serious tone.
Responsibility of Strangers - Social Experiment
This experiment explores common situations to test to see what variables are more likely to elicit a protective response from strangers. A normal-looking woman leaves her belongings unattended at the beach and a man (part of the experiment) comes by and steals her Ipod and speakers. No one really helps, though they notice, but if the normal-looking woman makes small talk with people nearby, they are much more likely to respond to the thief. Switch the normal-looking woman for someone much more attractive and things change. She doesn't have to even make small talk - people step in to react when the thief steals her things but the difference is they all noticed her more... because we notice beautiful people, we're more aware of them when they're near us. Take that same beautiful woman, though, and tell her to come on to another woman's husband a bit... she's suddenly not someone to just observe, she becomes a threat and is treated quite differently. We've been talking about Attribution theory, how we categorize people and assume qualities they have based on how they fit into our schemas, or prior categories of knowledge. Beautiful people are considered differently - we assume if they are beautiful then they are also all the other positive qualities: moral, intelligent, honest, caring, good, etc. We have just finished our own social experiment testing male photos and female photos and asked our volunteers (both male and female) to rate them in order from the ones they <b>...</b>
social experiment psychology attribution theory error self-fulfilling prophecy impressions keenermarc
Jimmy doin a lil dance...
We were all amazed by the psychadelic look of K's shirt through the camera lense, so J put the shirt on so K could see what it looked like.. but he entertained us too.
