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Experiments With People summary

Name: Experiments With People
Rating: 4.4 (105 reviews)
Author: Robert P. Abelson, Kurt P. Frey and Aiden P. Gregg

Robert P. Abelson Kurt P. Frey Aiden P. Gregg

Revelations From Social Psychology

4.4 (105 ratings)

24 mins

Brief summary

Experiments With People by Robert P. Abelson, Kurt P. Frey, and Aiden P. Gregg explores the ethical and practical implications of conducting experiments on human subjects. It explores how research in the social sciences can lead to both progress and unintended consequences, and advocates for responsible and transparent practices.

Topics

Personality Love Manipulation

Table of Contents

Experiments With People
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What’s in it for me? Catch up on the last century of studies on human nature.

“Human nature” is an elusive concept often used to explain actions, emotions and behaviors that don’t seem to make sense at first glance. The central question is still this: Why do we behave the way we do?

Through social psychology experiments, psychologists are able to understand the extent to which people are influenced by the group they belong to, or how little people understand about the underlying reasons for their actions.

In these blinks, we will get to know more about ourselves and our fellow humans through a number of the 28 most influential experiments in social psychology conducted during the twentieth century, experiments and studies that helped illuminate why we act and behave the way we do.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why people spend so much energy on projects that are doomed to fail;
how a given situation, not our personality, determines how we act; and
why gender roles exist partly as a way for us to make sense of inequality.

People often have misconceptions about their inner lives.

Have you ever screamed at your partner in the heat of the moment, only to apologize later, saying you were stressed out about work?

Well, while you might think that stress explains your behavior, chances are you’re wrong. The truth is that people are much less aware of their inner emotions than they think.

That being said, people often find justifications for their actions by taking a deeper look at their thoughts and feelings. This practice is known as introspection but, unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well. Just take a study done in 1977 by Richard E. Nisbett and Nancy Bellows. In this experiment, participants were asked to rate a hypothetical job applicant named “Jill” based on characteristics like flexibility and likability.

Each participant received a file containing information about Jill, with some files stating that she had recently been in a car accident. Perhaps surprisingly, the experimenters found that knowledge of the car accident had no significant effect on the average likability scores given to Jill by the participants.

However, when the participants were subsequently asked about the factors upon which they based their likability scores – that is, when they were asked to be introspective – they mentioned the car accident as one reason for finding Jill likable. The fact that this self-assessment didn’t match the statistical data shows that introspection can lead us to erroneous conclusions about our behavior.

Beyond that, people just aren’t very good at remembering things. When we have a memory, we don’t just replay a past event; we transform it based on our present beliefs.

A study done by Cathy McFarland, Michael Ross and Nancy DeCourville in 1993 offers a good illustration of this. The participants in this experiment wrote daily reports about their menstrual cycles. Then, when they were asked two weeks later to recall how they had felt, they consistently described having been in more pain and suffering more negative emotions than they actually had.

Why? Most people believe that menstruation is a painful process, or at least supposed to be, and the participants here were no exception. Holding this belief led the participants to retrospectively add more pain to their memories of menstruation.

We value things we've made sacrifices for and those that are presented in a favorable light.

We make countless choices every day, from how to spend our free time to what to eat for dinner. But what psychological processes impact these decisions?

Well, we tend to value things more if we’ve invested a lot to get them – even if they’re not actually very good. Elliot Aronson and Judson Mills show this in a 1951 study: participants were made to endure an embarrassing initiation by reading a lewd passage out loud to an experimenter, as a means to gain entry into a fictitious sex discussion group.

Situational factors often affect our behavior more than our character traits do.

Would you describe yourself as always willing to help a fellow human in need? Well, if you answered yes, the truth might not be so clear-cut. In the end, even the most pious or compassionate among us will ignore suffering when in a hurry.

A good example is a 1973 study conducted by John Darley and Daniel Batson, in which theology students were asked to give a brief presentation in an adjacent building. Some of them were told to take their time, while others were told that they were already running late.

Our mental processes cause us to misjudge certain situations.

Every day, we encounter new and strange situations. So how do we deal with these encounters, and do our strategies work?

At first, we always take things at face value. According to a study done in 1993 by Daniel Gilbert et al, we accept everything we see and only later return to question its accuracy. It’s at this point that we decide whether we should continue accepting it or change our minds.

We accept fiction as reality to help us deal with the world around us.

You just learned how people habitually misjudge new situations, but what other processes assist us in dealing with the world, for better or for worse?

For starters, people tend to deceive themselves into believing everything is fine. Imagine that you suspect you have a serious illness. You’ve read that one symptom of the disease is a loss of appetite and it would be logical to go to the doctor once you suspect something.

Group loyalty and pressure have a major impact on our behavior.

Do you act differently when you’re alone compared to when you’re with others? Most people do, which is why we view the world through the eyes of the group we belong to.

Consider a study conducted by Albert Hastorf and Hadley Cantril in 1954. The experiment asked Princeton and Dartmouth students for their views on a recent contentious football game between the two schools. Of the Princeton fans, 90 percent blamed Dartmouth for the instigation of foul play, while the Dartmouth fans blamed Princeton in comparably high numbers.

Groups enable people’s poor behavior.

It’s clear that human behavior is different in groups, and group pressure can easily force us to do bad things.

For starters, the more people we’re around, the less likely we are to be of help, primarily because we diffuse responsibility. If someone is gasping for air on the street, the more people there are around to help, the less responsible each of them will feel.

Attraction and prejudice are motivated by subconscious factors.

It’s pretty obvious that we like some people and aren’t so excited about others. But why is this?

As it turns out, we often prefer certain people just because we spend time with them. This phenomenon is known as the exposure effect: the more we’re exposed to a person or thing, the more we enjoy it. This concept was demonstrated by Theodore Mita in his 1977 study on people’s faces.

People can be easily influenced – sometimes even to carry out evil acts.

We often wish we could get people to do or think what we want, and there are a few good tactics to actually make this happen.

For starters, we can change people’s opinions by getting them to willingly take an action that contradicts their views. These contradictions between what we do and what we believe create a feeling of cognitive dissonance.

Altruism and love do exist.

Humans can clearly be made to do horrible things – but is there no saving grace for the human species? When you give a homeless person some spare change, are you actually acting altruistically, or do you just want to feel better about yourself?

Well, you can rest assured that altruism does exist. Consider C. Daniel Batson et al.’s 1988 study, which instructed participants to listen empathetically to a recording of a woman named Katie relating the struggles of her life. Afterward, they had the option to commit to helping her for a certain number of hours.

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What is Experiments With People about?

Experiments With People (2003) is a survey of social psychology throughout the twentieth century, and everything we have come to learn from it. These blinks will teach you about yourself, the hidden sides of human nature, why we make the choices we do and how altruistic humans really are.

Experiments With People Review

Experiments With People (2007) explores the fascinating world of social psychology by delving into various studies and experiments. Here's why this book is worth reading:

It provides insightful analysis of key experiments, helping readers understand human behavior and the factors that influence it.
Through real-life case studies and thought-provoking examples, the book sheds light on the complexities of social interactions and their implications.
By uncovering surprising and counterintuitive findings, it challenges common assumptions and stimulates critical thinking about human behavior.

Best quote from Experiments With People

...we are more of a mystery to ourselves than we realize.

—Robert P. Abelson, Kurt P. Frey and Aiden P. Gregg

Who should read Experiments With People?

Students of psychology and the social sciences
Impulsive people looking to include more rationality in their daily lives
Highly social people interested in the intricacies human nature

About the Author

Robert Paul Abelson was a Yale University psychologist and social scientist, as well as an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Kurt P. Frey is professor of psychology at Bridgeport University in Connecticut.

Aiden P. Gregg is associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Southampton University, United Kingdom.

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