Coming up with a groundbreaking idea, product, strategy, that’s what we are all after – or at least, a genuinely good one. Yet, before racking our brains in order to hit on that awesome idea, it’s pivotal to fully understand our audience, our consumer. And even before that, it’s worth having in mind how irrational we are as human beings. Later on I’ll cover the essential bits of behavioral economics, but for now, let’s take a look at the basic and unmissable social-psychological experiments. These insightful experiments were the byproduct of the unease and bafflement created by the ruthless World War II. Social psychologists like Solomon Asch or Stanley Milgram, decided to put human behavior to test and see how far can we go and how much behavior is driven by social influence, obedience, and conformity.
1. Asch Conformity Experiments
In these two experiments we can clearly see the massive bearing that have others’ behaviour upon ours. Both showcase how incredibly ridiculous it can actually get..
2. Milgram Obedience Experiment
This is another experiment that signals how vulnerable we are to obedience and, what’s more, how unconsciously pleasant it can be to feel in power, to be the authority.
3. Leon Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance
One of the most striking insights from Social Psychology is the inherent need to be self-concordant. Cognitive dissonance accounts for the unease we feel when exists dissonance between our beliefs & values and our actual behaviour.
4. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
Another truly shocking experiment was the one undertaken by Philip Zimbardo, who confirmed how far can we actually go if assigned specific roles. As a matter of fact, not only the subjects clearly displayed despicable behaviour, but also Zimbardo himself was a prisoner of his own experiment. One of his colleagues – who curiously enough ended up being his wife – made him see reason and stop the experiment.
5. The Psychology of Evil
All these experiments go on to show how powerful context is, out behaviour is deeply influenced by the context we are in. To the extent that totally reasonable and kind people can be led astray in a matter of minutes. In this recent TED talk, Zimbardo talks and gives vivid examples of how the context can ultimately trigger absolutely horrible behaviour.
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