Social psychology experiments can explain how thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by the presence of others.
Typically social psychology studies investigate how someone's behavior influences a groups behavior or internal states, such as attitude or self-concept.
OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY
The aftermath of World War 2, lead to interest in what to made people "following orders" even though the orders were horrible. The
Stanley Milgram Experiment
showed that also non-nazi populations would follow orders to harm other persons. It was not a German phenomenon as many thought.
OBEDIENCE TO A ROLE - DEHUMANIZATION
The Abu Ghraib prison-episode was yet another example on the power of predefined roles. The
Stanford Prison Experiment
by Philip Zimbardo, demonstrated the powerful effect our perception of expectations in roles have.
CONFORMITY
Solomon Asch wanted to test how much people are influenced by others opinions in the
Asch Conformity Experiment.
OBSERVATIONAL ROLE LEARNING
Behaviorists ruled psychology for a long time. They focused on how individuals learn by trying and failing. Albert Bandura thought that humans are much more than "learning machines". He thought that we learn from role models, initiating the (bandura) social cognitive theory. It all started with the
Bobo Doll Experiment.
HELPING BEHAVIOR - GOOD SAMARITAN
Knowing the story of the Good Samaritan makes you wonder what made the Samaritan help the stranger, and why did he not get help from the priest or the Levite? The
Good Samaritan Experiment
explores causes of not showing helping behavior or altruism.