Top 6 Most Famous Social Experiments

To explain and prevent social cataclysms (and sometimes purely for scientific purposes), modern psychologists and sociologists have often resorted to social experiments in their quest to discover what humans are capable of, what they are not, and how situations and contexts affect their behaviour, morality, and actions. The results of these experiments have been applied in business, advertising, public opinion work, and sometimes even served as the basis for film adaptations.

One such well-known example is the Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by American social psychologist Philip Zimbardo, who recently passed away. This experiment has inspired several books and films.

The three social experiments discussed below have practical applications today – they help better understand the behaviour of participants in other experiments that are not conducted in a controlled university environment under the supervision of specialists, but on a larger scale across entire nations. This primarily concerns the citizens of Russia, who were initially participants in a 70-year-long geopolitical experiment to build a 'communist paradise' on earth, and then, after a brief taste of freedom, an experiment to atomise civil society and transform it into a monolithic fascist state, where having an opinion is dangerous, any orders are obeyed, and moral responsibility for crimes is shifted onto the 'wise leadership of the country' or explained through the image of an 'external enemy', which has been created by Russian propaganda spreading xenophobia and imperial chauvinism.

Stanford Prison Experiment

This dramatic 1971 experiment was a psychological study of human reactions to freedom restrictions, prison life conditions, and the impact of imposed social behavioural models. During the Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by Philip Zimbardo, 24 ordinary college students were randomly assigned to the roles of "prisoners" and "guards" in a simulated prison set up in the basement of the psychology department. The experiment quickly spiralled out of control, leading to rebellion and torture, as the participants rapidly adopted their roles. The guards began to exhibit sadistic tendencies, while the prisoners experienced depression and hopelessness. Though the experiment was planned to last two weeks, it was terminated after six days for ethical reasons. Interestingly, out of the 50 people involved in the study, only Zimbardo’s fiancée, Christina Maslach, a future psychology professor, raised concerns about its ethics. In 1999, Mario Giordano wrote the novel "Black Box," which inspired two film adaptations titled "The Experiment." In 2009, Zimbardo himself wrote a popular science book, "The Lucifer Effect," based on the Stanford Experiment. The experiment's themes were also explored in the online novel Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by American rationalist Eliezer Yudkowsky, where the paradox of the original Harry Potter series was questioned—how could good wizards allow the existence of a "magical concentration camp" like Azkaban prison and the Dementors? 

Asch Conformity Experiments

A seemingly less harmful series of studies by Solomon Asch aimed to demonstrate the power of conformity in large social groups. In these experiments, students were asked to participate in a "vision test." However, the real goal was to observe how an individual responded to the erroneous behaviour of the majority. Typically, there was only one true subject in the group, surrounded by confederates acting according to predetermined instructions. The participants (the subject and seven confederates) were seated in a room and shown two cards: one with a single vertical line and the other with three lines, only one of which was the same length as the line on the first card. The task was simple—answer which of the three lines matched the length of the first card's line. The subject had to review 18 pairs of cards and provide 18 answers, always answering last in the group. On the first two questions, everyone gave the correct answer. But by the third round, the confederates deliberately provided the wrong answer, causing confusion for the subject. If the subject answered correctly, defying the majority’s opinion, they often felt discomfort. In the end, 75% of the subjects conformed to the clearly incorrect opinion of the majority at least once.

Milgram Experiment

Another "sadistic" experiment, conducted by social psychologist and educator Stanley Milgram, explored the phenomenon of authority and its influence on power and morality. Milgram’s experiment sought to answer the question: how much suffering are ordinary people willing to inflict on innocent individuals if causing such pain is part of their job? For the experiment, Milgram recruited two participants—one was an actor, and the other an unsuspecting individual. The actor played the role of the "learner," and the other participant became the "teacher." The "learner’s" task was to memorise pairs of words, while the "teacher" was responsible for testing them. If the "learner" made a mistake, the "teacher" was instructed to punish them with an electric shock. In reality, no shocks were administered—the actor merely pretended to be in pain. The "teacher" had access to about 30 switches, each supposedly delivering between 15 and 450 volts to the actor’s electrodes. The "teacher" could choose the intensity of the "shock" for each punishment. Before each shock, the experiment’s observers encouraged the "teacher" to continue, stating that it was absolutely necessary for the experiment. Shockingly, 65% of the participants continued to administer shocks even when the "learner" appeared to be in agony, simulating unconsciousness at the maximum 450-volt charge. However, all participants reached the 300-volt level, showing the extent to which individuals would follow authority.

However, in our selection, we want to explore not only experiments that delve into the dark corners of the human soul but also witty and interesting psychological experiments that show us how little we still know about ourselves and how dependent our perception of the world is on external circumstances.

The Invisible Gorilla

Our brain is not only capable of completely ignoring obvious objects but also of filling in reality, convincing us that we have seen something that wasn’t there. The phenomenon of perceptual blindness (or inattentional blindness) was studied by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris in a series of experiments involving the 'invisible gorilla'. Participants were shown a video of two basketball teams, one dressed in white shirts and the other in black. The task of the subjects was to watch the game and count the number of passes made by one of the teams. In the middle of the video, a person in a gorilla costume walked onto the court, stood in the centre of the frame for a while, and then left. Subsequent questioning revealed that more than 50% of the subjects were so focused on counting the successful passes that they completely missed seeing the gorilla.

The Imaginary Knife

The opposite effect was investigated by Robert Anton Wilson in an experiment with a banana. In this experiment, two people burst into a room where the participants were seated and began fighting. At one point, one of them pulled out a banana and 'stabbed' the other in the stomach, causing the other person to fall and 'die'. A medical team then appeared, confirmed the death, and carried the 'body' away, followed by the police. When the witnesses were questioned, almost all of them claimed that they had seen a knife in the attacker’s hand, not a banana, as was actually the case.

Objectivity or Conformity

Everyone has their favourite musicians and singers, but are they able to appreciate their talent if the identity of the performer is hidden? And how much does the evaluation of a widely recognised musical idol depend on their popularity? The musicians of U2, who have millions of fans worldwide, attempted to answer this question. The band members disguised themselves as street performers in such a way that their fans couldn’t recognise them, and they held a free public concert on the street. The results of the experiment showed that only a few people could recognise talent without the appropriate label – passers-by simply ignored the street 'buskers' until they removed their wigs, beards, glasses, and hats, revealing their true identities. This experiment demonstrated that most people prefer to follow the established opinion of others (from the media to music critics) when evaluating art, rather than attempting to determine the level of musical talent themselves.