A Few Psychology Experiments

The Piano Stairs Experiment

A Volkswagen initiative called The Fun Theory set out to prove that people?s behavior can be changed for the better by making mundane activities fun. In this experiment, they set up musical piano steps on the staircase of a Stockholm, Sweden subway station to see if more people would be more willing to choose the healthier option and take the stairs instead of the escalator. the results revealed that 66 percent more people took the stairs than usual that day, proving that fun is the best way to get people to change their ways.

Robbers Cave Experiment

In this controversial experiment, the researchers placed 22 boys between the ages of 11 and 12 in two groups at a camp in the Robbers Cave Park in Oklahoma. The boys spent the first week of the experiment bonding with their other group members.

It wasn't until the second phase of the experiment that the children learned that there was another group, at which point the experimenters placed the two groups in direct competition with each other. This led to considerable discord, as the boys clearly favored their own group members while they disparaged the members of the other group. In the final phase, the researchers staged tasks that required the two groups to work together. These shared tasks helped the boys get to know members of the other group and eventually led to a truce between the rivals.

The Smoky Room Experiment

In this experiment, researchers had participants sit in a room to fill out questionnaires. Suddenly, the room began to fill with smoke. In some cases the participants was alone, in others there were three unsuspecting participants in the room. In the final iteration there was one participant and two actors, who ignored the smoke and went on filling out their questionnaires.

When the participants were alone, about three-quarters of the participants left the room calmly to report the smoke to the researchers. In the condition with three real participants, a little under 40 percent reported the smoke. In the final condition where the two confederates ignored the smoke, a mere 10 percent of participants left to report the smoke.

The experiment is a great example of how much people rely on the responses of others to guide their actions. When something is happening, but no one seems to be responding, people tend to take their cues from the group and assume that a response is not required.

False Consensus Experiment

In this study, the experimenters asked students on a college campus to walk around carrying a large advertisement that read "Eat at Joe's." The researchers then asked the students to estimate how many other people would agree to wear the advertisement. They found that those who agreed to carry the sign believed that the majority of people would also agree to carry the sign. Those who refused felt that the majority of people would refuse as well.

The results of these experiments demonstrate what is known in psychology as the false consensus effect. No matter what our beliefs, options, or behaviors, we tend to believe that the majority of other people also agree with us and act the same way we do.

The Asch Conformity Experiment

The Asch Experiment is another famous example of the temptation to conform during group situations. This series of experiments conducted in the 1950s placed one subject in a room full of actors. The person conducting the experiment held up an image with three numbered lines and asked each person in the room to identify the longest line. The actors purposely chose the incorrect line in order to determine whether the subject would answer honestly or simply go along with the group answer. The results once again showed that people tend to conform in group situations.

The Milgram Experiment

This experiment, conducted in 1961 by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram measured the willingness to obey authority figures by instructing people to perform acts that conflicted with their morals. Participants were told to play the role of ?teacher? and administer electric shocks to ?the learner,? who was supposedly in a different room, every time they answered a question incorrectly. In reality, no one was actually being shocked. Instead, Milgram played recordings to make it sound like the learner was in a great deal of pain and wanted to end the experiment. Despite these protests, many participants continued the experiment when the authority figure urged them to, increasing the voltage after each wrong answer until some eventually administered what would be lethal electric shocks.

Similar experiments conducted since the original have provided nearly identical results, indicating that people are willing to go against their consciences if they are being told to do so by authority figures.

The "Violinist in the Metro" Experiment

In 2007, acclaimed violinist Josh Bell posed as a street musician at a busy Washington, D.C. subway station. Bell had just sold out a concert with an average ticket price of $100 each. He is one of the most renowned musicians in the world and was playing on a handcrafted violin worth more than $3.5 million. Yet most people scurried on their way without stopping to listen to the music.

When children would occasionally stop to listen, their parents would grab them and quickly usher them on their way. The experiment raised some interested questions about how we not only value beauty but whether we truly stop to appreciate the remarkable works of beauty that are around us.

The Marshmallow Test Experiment

In these experiments conducted by Walter Mischel in the late 1960s and early 1970s,children between the ages of four and six were placed in a room with a treat (often a marshmallow or cookie). Before leaving the room, the experimenter told each child that they would receive a second treat if the first treat was still on the table after 15 minutes.

Follow-up studies conducted years later found that the children who were able to delay gratification did better in a variety of areas including academically. Those who had been able to wait the 15 minutes for the second treat tended to have higher SAT scores and higher educational levels. The results suggest that this ability to wait for gratification is not only an essential skill for success but also something that forms early on and lasts throughout life.

Carlsberg Social Experiment

In this social experiment, which actually started out as an advertisement, unsuspecting couples walked into a crowded movie theater. All but two of the 150 seats were already full. The twist is that the 148 already-filled seats were taken by a bunch of rather rugged and scary-looking male bikers.

In the informal experiment, not all of the couples ended up taking a seat, but those who eventually did were rewarded with cheers from the crowd and a round of free Carlsberg beers. The exercise served as a great example of why people shouldn't always judge a book by its cover.

Halo Effect Experiment

In this experiment, published in 1920, psychologist Edward Thorndike asked commanding officers in the military to give ratings of various characteristics of their subordinates. Thorndike was interested in learning how impressions of one quality, such as intelligence, bled over onto perceptions of other personal characteristics, such as leadership, loyalty, and honesty.

Thorndike discovered that when people hold a good impression of one characteristic, those good feelings tend to affect perceptions of other qualities. For example, thinking someone is attractive can create a halo effect that leads people also to believe that person is kind, smart, and funny. The opposite effect is also true. Negative feelings about one characteristic lead to negative impressions of an individual's other features.