Have you ever wondered why you do things the way you do? Why people act the way they act? Or how you could fall in love with a stranger in less than 45 minutes? There have been numerous researches and experiments done to answer these questions. Here are a few noteworthy experiments that tried answering questions we have about the human mind:
1. 36 Questions that lead to love
A psychologist Arthur Aaron of Stony Brook University created a method using 36 questions to get people who just met, to fall in love. After having answered the questions the participants have to stare in each other’s eyes for four minutes which would create a more intimate setting. The questions are divided into three sets. In every set the questions get increasingly deeper, which would enhance the mutual vulnerability and foster a mutual understanding. What so interesting about this experiment is that it can be difficult to be vulnerable and expose yourself to another person, this experiment forces people to do so. Whether this questionnaire actually made people fall in love is still up in the air, but personally, I do think it can bring people closer together.
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2. Asch Conformity Study
Dr. Solomon Ash conducted a study to test what a person’s likelihood is to agree with others when there is pressure from the group. She experimented by using a group of participants and showing them various lengths of a line. After showing the group the lines, a question was asked: “Which line is the longest?”. You would say that this should be an easy question for the participants to answer, however in the group there was only one true participant. The other “participants” were actors that were hired who followed a certain script. The actors were asked to give the wrong answer, which strangely led to the one true participant agreeing with the wrong answer most of the time. The result of this experiment is very important when we study social interactions in the form of a group. It is an example of how individuals are affected to conform to the standards of the group. It also shows us how people care more about being the same as others than standing out and being right.
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3.The Little Albert Experiment
A university professor, called Dr. John B. Watson, was eager to learn more about classical conditioning. This is a theory that involves learning involuntary or let someone behave automatically by association. Dr Watson was convinced that this theory was the base of human psychology. He started an experiment with Rosalie Rayner a psychologist. They used a nine-month-old toddler, that was called Albert B who was volunteered for the experiment. The toddler-like playing with furry white objects and showed love and affection for them. As the experiment started Dr. Watson would make loud noises behind the toddlers head every time it would play with a furry white object. After having done this numerous times the toddler was conditioned to be scared when he saw any furry white object. This experiment concluded that we can be conditioned to like or fear something. Many psychologists believe that this experiment could explain why humans can create irrational fears and how they were developed in the earlier stage of their life.
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4. The Kitty Genovese case
Even though the murder case of Kitty Genovese wasn’t an experiment in the first place it ended up being one of the most important psychological experiments, which led to many modifications in many work fields. Almost 40 neighbors witnessed Kitty being savagely attacked and murdered in New York in 1964, however not one neighbor called for the police. Some report made about the murder even say that the killer briefly left the scene and came back later to “finish off” his victim. Later this turned out to have been execrated and there turned out to be records of people calling to the police for help. Because of this, the case later was turned into a study and became known for the “bystander effect”. This theory concludes that the more bystanders there are in a situation, it is less likely for anyone to stand in and help. The results of this study have let to changes in psychology, medicine and many other areas. One example of this that you might know is when you follow an “EHBO” course you are thought to always assign a bystander the job of alerting the authorities to avoid the chance for no one calling for assistance.
