Pavlov's Dog Experiment: Study Conducted By: Ivan Pavlov
Pavlov's Dog Experiment: Study Conducted By: Ivan Pavlov
In one rather amusing 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.
What would you do in this situation? Would you take one of the available seats and enjoy the
movie, or would you feel intimidated and leave? 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.
During the late 1970s, researcher Lee Ross at his colleagues performed some eye-opening
experiments. In one experiment, the researchers had participants choose a way to respond to an
imagined conflict and then estimate how many people would also select the same resolution.
They found that no matter which option the respondents chose, they tended to believe that the
vast majority of other people would also choose the same option.
In another study, the experimenters asked students on 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.
Another possibility would be to visit a public place, such as a park or a lounge area at
the mall, and have one student eat an unusual item like a blue foot-long hot dog or a
hot pink taco while the other student records bystander responses. The goal is to see
how onlookers respond to out-of-the-ordinary behavior.
Marshmallow Experiment children ages four to six were taken into a room where a marshmallow
was placed on the table in front of them on a table. Before leaving each of the children alone in
the room, the experimenter informed them that they would receive a second marshmallow if the
first one was still on the table after they returned in 15 minutes. The examiner recorded how long
each child resisted eating the marshmallow and noted whether it correlated with the child’s
success in adulthood.
The activity of the social sciences, especially when conducting experiement on real live
human beings is a serious activity, not undertaken lightly. As a social scientist, the
intention would be to further our knowledge about human/social behavior. The
experiments undertaken would be directed by the research topics, questions, and
hypotheses.
If your intention is entertainment or self education, you might want to examine the
ethics involved in such an undertaking.
One thing that I can suggest is that observation is an important tool in the social
scientist’s kit. Ask a question, do some reading, form a hypothesis and go out into the
world and observe. See if the data you collect confirms or counters your hypothesis.
2. Field Experiments
Field experiments are done in the everyday (i.e. real life) environment of the
participants. The experimenter still manipulates the independent variable, but in
a real-life setting (so cannot really control extraneous variables).
An example is Holfing’s hospital study on obedience.