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Social psychology essay question

The question is:
C. Discuss how our understanding of the studies can be used to change or control social behaviour. Give example that could be used in the real world to change/influence or control human social behaviour

I am writing about Milgram's and Asch's experiment. Does anyone know how their experiments have influenced us in modern times?

Thanks

Reply 1

Ratsuma

Asch's study shows why people in a jury may conform as they don't want to appear deviant from attitudes of other jurors. Conformity pressure is a major issue in jury decision making :3
Milgram's study is supported by more realistic studies such as Hofling et al (1996) hospital study where nurses were telephoned by a "doctor" who asked them to give 20mg of a drug called Astrogen to a patient. The order went against hospital regulations as nurses weren't allowed to take instructions over the phone from an unknown Doctor, the dosage was also twice that advised on the bottle. 21 out of 22 nurses did as the doctor requested. This shows that the obedience shown in Milgrams study is applicable to real-life situations despite being a lab study. -may be too long/irrelevant but still useful?
Hope this helps a little :smile:

Reply 2

tulipsinrain

Interestingly, Milgram worked with Asch and Asch's study inspired Milgram's obedience study. It influenced us in modern times because it shows how far one is willing to go (to the point of hurting another human) under the direction of someone in authority. It shows that humans would go against their morals if instructed to. It provides evidence that we won't always do what we think we would. This study has been used to justify war crimes.