Why We do Dumb or Irrational Things: 10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies


	Why We do Dumb or Irrational Things: 10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies

Newfman

11-17-2007 7:54 PM

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tags:

psychology

Newfman says:

Descriptions of all 10 experiments at the site

3 Comments |

Add a Comment

11-18-2007 6:16 AM

LunaRosa

Interesting clip, thank you.

11-19-2007 9:23 AM

Socratoad

Thumbs up for this clip Newfman.

10-13-2008 1:19 AM

blueridge

Let's add "Group Think" to this list, which explains how bad decisions are made by groups of people.

Here is just one of the eight symptoms:

# Illusion of Morality: Members believe their decisions are morally correct, ignoring the ethical consequences of their decisions.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/358ae2f2-7e56-4c60-8920-ca69939ea17d/67D2017C-8CB4-4BFF-B559-8A52EE4AFD7C/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/10-piercing-insights-into-human-nature.php?rss.do" href="http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/10-piercing-insights-into-human-nature.php?rss.do" style="font-size: 11px;">www.spring.org.uk</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/10-piercing-insights-into-human-nature.php?rss.do"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.spring.org.uk/img/71E4B717-E75D-4A61-B4DE-652765403386" alt="Head Turned" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/10-piercing-insights-into-human-nature.php?rss.do"><SPAN>"I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?" --Philip Zimbardo </SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/10-piercing-insights-into-human-nature.php?rss.do"><DIV>Like eminent social psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo, I'm also obsessed with why we do dumb or irrational things. The answer quite often is because of other people - something social psychologists have comprehensively shown. </DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/10-piercing-insights-into-human-nature.php?rss.do">Over the past few months I've been describing 10 of the most influential social psychology studies. 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