Human Behavior Experiments
Dec. 11th, 2006 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joshwritingI watched the Sundance Channel this evening, on which was being aired a documentary called The Human Behavior Experiments. It included footage, discussion, and retrospective interviews with some participants in the Milgram and Stanford Prison Experiments, along with other experiments, the Kitty Genovese murder, and Abu Ghraib.
These are all tied together, conceptually, in how people behave in groups versus alone, along with how they respond to the voice of authority. The kicker, for me at least, was the case of the strip searches ordered by a voice on the phone.
For approximately a decade, a man has been calling up restaurants and other places, pretending to be a police detective, and ordering the person who answers the phone (or whomever is in charge and handed the phone) to conduct strip searches of employees - and a lot of other things.
The behaviors of those on the phones is amazing. It is appalling. And, apparently, it is human nature more than not.
A report and some very disturbing footage is here: <http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2684890&page=1>. I seriously recommend not watching it if inappropriate behavior and dehumanizing behavior disturbs you or makes you too uncomfortable.
The special didn't really tell me anything I didn't know about human behavior. It showed me some experiments I hadn't seen, in addition to the McDonald's strip search (and others) and it did a good job of tying it into Abu Ghraib. The similarities between the Stanford pictures and those from Iraq are eerie - and not just to me, but to some of those involved in the Stanford Prison Experiment.
If you get Sundance, I commend the show to interested people (and others who are unfamiliar and can handle it). It will be on again, I am sure.
These are all tied together, conceptually, in how people behave in groups versus alone, along with how they respond to the voice of authority. The kicker, for me at least, was the case of the strip searches ordered by a voice on the phone.
For approximately a decade, a man has been calling up restaurants and other places, pretending to be a police detective, and ordering the person who answers the phone (or whomever is in charge and handed the phone) to conduct strip searches of employees - and a lot of other things.
The behaviors of those on the phones is amazing. It is appalling. And, apparently, it is human nature more than not.
A report and some very disturbing footage is here: <http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2684890&page=1>. I seriously recommend not watching it if inappropriate behavior and dehumanizing behavior disturbs you or makes you too uncomfortable.
The special didn't really tell me anything I didn't know about human behavior. It showed me some experiments I hadn't seen, in addition to the McDonald's strip search (and others) and it did a good job of tying it into Abu Ghraib. The similarities between the Stanford pictures and those from Iraq are eerie - and not just to me, but to some of those involved in the Stanford Prison Experiment.
If you get Sundance, I commend the show to interested people (and others who are unfamiliar and can handle it). It will be on again, I am sure.
