Disturbing things about human nature that you probably never heard of

[Calavera]

... unless you read a lot of interesting books or you're into psychology big time, that is.

I'll just post some YouTube videos for you to view:

Milgram Experiment


Stanford Prison Experiment


Bystander Effect

[Pyraxis]

  Those are some good ones.

[Parts]

 I had hear of these before but knew that people were fucked up long before I did which is one of the reasons I like to avoid them when I can.  The bystander one is tricky I stopped and tried to help a guy who was bleeding pretty bad from cuts his face once in college when he began attacking the car I was in and screaming at us.  That dampened my willingness to help people at times unless they look harmless.

[Calavera]

I had hear of these before but knew that people were fucked up long before I did which is one of the reasons I like to avoid them when I can.  The bystander one is tricky I stopped and tried to help a guy who was bleeding pretty bad from cuts his face once in college when he began attacking the car I was in and screaming at us.  That dampened my willingness to help people at times unless they look harmless.

To be fair, there is only partial truth to the bystander effect. It depends on various factors really. Quite a few people are just exceptionally helpful to others when needed, for example. Other factors involve the number of people around in such situations, your capabilities (or lack of capabilities) to help, whether or not you know the person in need of help, your role in society (are you a police officer or someone whose duty is to help), what the cultural expectations are, what traditional background you're from, religious/secular mentality, and so on.

Also, let's not forget the core rule of the bystander effect. The larger the crowd, the less likely any person in the crowd would make the first move to help. The smaller the crowd, the better.

[PuppetSockPenguin]

Heard of all of them but I read a lot of interesting books AND I'm into psychology big time.

[Scrapheap]

The banality of evil....   

[Adam]

I have heard of them before but they are interesting yes

and I only  read interesting books

[Adam]

I mostly got into things like this from my interest in WW2 , therefore the holocaust shit I read. I ended up getting into general psychology stuff. I think it helps to be aware of what is making you tick, and what kind of thing s you're likely to do in certain situations. you can actively change that if you're conscious of it beforehand. evolutionary psychology is interesting from that point of view.

I would never claim to be morally superior to everyone else because of what I've read (and definitely could never sit here and say what I would do in a concentation camp or something equally big), but I'd like to think that I am more likely to do the "right" thing now in situations like the third video.  I hope so anyway

[Callaway]

Here's a recreation of the Stanley Milgram experiment:

[Calavera]

I mostly got into things like this from my interest in WW2 , therefore the holocaust shit I read. I ended up getting into general psychology stuff. I think it helps to be aware of what is making you tick, and what kind of thing s you're likely to do in certain situations. you can actively change that if you're conscious of it beforehand. evolutionary psychology is interesting from that point of view.

I would never claim to be morally superior to everyone else because of what I've read (and definitely could never sit here and say what I would do in a concentation camp or something equally big), but I'd like to think that I am more likely to do the "right" thing now in situations like the third video.  I hope so anyway

Yes, one good thing about knowing about all this is that it raises our awareness of what human nature is really like and this is what can lead us to act more appropriately than if we had never learned about these experiments.

[renaeden]

Here's a recreation of the Stanley Milgram experiment:

I posted that one somewhere here recently. I didn't think they would get away with doing that one again tbh.

Here is another example of bystander effect. I find it really disturbing. I learnt about it in my first year of psych.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese
http://www.homicidesquad.com/kitty_genovese.htm

[Calavera]

Here's a recreation of the Stanley Milgram experiment:

I posted that one somewhere here recently. I didn't think they would get away with doing that one again tbh.

Here is another example of bystander effect. I find it really disturbing. I learnt about it in my first year of psych.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese
http://www.homicidesquad.com/kitty_genovese.htm

Not sure if this is true or not, but I read lately that the Kitty Genovese story was exaggerated ... which is why I didn't include a vid on it in the OP.

But I hear you on the disturbing bit. My sister's first year studying psychology involved all the experiments mentioned in the OP, and when I found out that's what she was learning, I was actually concerned she might be affected by it. But she's taken this more calmly than I did when I first learned about them.

[renaeden]

Yeah I heard about the Kitty Genovese story being exaggerated as well...but doesn't that happen with a lot of things. Whichever way, what happened to her was tragic I think.

The Prison experiment I knew about before going to uni and the other two I learnt about in my first year as well.

[El]

Heard of all of them but I read a lot of interesting books AND I'm into psychology big time.

Ditto.

[Calavera]

Yeah I heard about the Kitty Genovese story being exaggerated as well...but doesn't that happen with a lot of things. Whichever way, what happened to her was tragic I think.

The Prison experiment I knew about before going to uni and the other two I learnt about in my first year as well.

Just realized the second link you provided actually makes the case it was exaggerated.