Furtherman
09-13-2007, 10:04 AM
These are some amazing stories. One warning, if you're an animal lover, you might not want to venture to the link. But I think many of these experiments show, if anything, that the human nature is very basic at its roots. Much like a dog, we can be trained to do, think or feel ANYTHING. This is why there are horrible acts, genocide, ignorance and religion. Although no one is capable of reaching a true higher enlightenment, everyone is capable of pressing a button.
Elephants On Acid: The Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments Of All Time (http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Top/experiments/P0)
Don't be fooled by the website name, the author explains:
One question you may be wondering: Why are these experiments listed here, on the Museum of Hoaxes? They're not hoaxes, are they? No, they're not. All of these experiments really did occur. I put the list here simply because I already had this site up and running, and I didn't feel like designing a new site just for one list.
My favorites are #2. Obedience, #7 The Stanford Prison Experiment and #19 Shock The Puppy.
These show how easy humans are manipulated and how powerful the feeling of power can be. The first two I've read about before, but the third one really shocked me. In Shock The Puppy:
... subjects were told — volunteers from an undergraduate psychology course — that the puppy was being trained to distinguish between a flickering and a steady light. It had to stand either to the right or the left depending on the cue from the light. If the animal failed to stand in the correct place, the subjects had to press a switch to shock it. As in the Milgram experiment, the shock level increased 15 volts for every wrong answer. But unlike the Milgram experiment, the puppy really was getting zapped.
Cruel right? Well gentlemen, read on about the results:
As the voltage increased, the puppy first barked, then jumped up and down, and finally started howling with pain. The volunteers were horrified. They paced back and forth, hyperventilated, and gestured with their hands to show the puppy where to stand. Many openly wept. Yet the majority of them, twenty out of twenty-six, kept pushing the shock button right up to the maximum voltage.
Intriguingly, the six students who refused to go on were all men. All thirteen women who participated in the experiment obeyed right up until the end.
Damn girls. I knew some could be cold and heartless... but a puppy? Damn.
Also - a monkey head transplant? Two headed dogs? All true... and bizarre.
Good reading!
Elephants On Acid: The Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments Of All Time (http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Top/experiments/P0)
Don't be fooled by the website name, the author explains:
One question you may be wondering: Why are these experiments listed here, on the Museum of Hoaxes? They're not hoaxes, are they? No, they're not. All of these experiments really did occur. I put the list here simply because I already had this site up and running, and I didn't feel like designing a new site just for one list.
My favorites are #2. Obedience, #7 The Stanford Prison Experiment and #19 Shock The Puppy.
These show how easy humans are manipulated and how powerful the feeling of power can be. The first two I've read about before, but the third one really shocked me. In Shock The Puppy:
... subjects were told — volunteers from an undergraduate psychology course — that the puppy was being trained to distinguish between a flickering and a steady light. It had to stand either to the right or the left depending on the cue from the light. If the animal failed to stand in the correct place, the subjects had to press a switch to shock it. As in the Milgram experiment, the shock level increased 15 volts for every wrong answer. But unlike the Milgram experiment, the puppy really was getting zapped.
Cruel right? Well gentlemen, read on about the results:
As the voltage increased, the puppy first barked, then jumped up and down, and finally started howling with pain. The volunteers were horrified. They paced back and forth, hyperventilated, and gestured with their hands to show the puppy where to stand. Many openly wept. Yet the majority of them, twenty out of twenty-six, kept pushing the shock button right up to the maximum voltage.
Intriguingly, the six students who refused to go on were all men. All thirteen women who participated in the experiment obeyed right up until the end.
Damn girls. I knew some could be cold and heartless... but a puppy? Damn.
Also - a monkey head transplant? Two headed dogs? All true... and bizarre.
Good reading!