tok presentation magazine final
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Aim: “to understand which kinds of people are more or less willing to obey these kinds of orders” (Shim)
Procedure:
o During 8 months, participants were interviewed and their personal history was reviewed to determine their personality and mark tendencies about behavior (Shim).
o The data was matched to their behavior during the experiment, making distinctions from agreeable vs.
non-agreeable people.
o Milgram used “an electric shock indicator, a way to quantify and measure a person’s willingness to torture.
No one would be actually shocked, the confederate would fake it” (Harris).
o Required the experimenter to order the subject to perform.
Findings: “People who were normally friendly followed orders because they didn't want to upset others, while those
who were described as unfriendly stuck up for themselves” (Shim).
65% of people hit the 450-volt button three times before Milgram cut them off (Harris).
All subjects reached 300 volts (Harris).
Agreeable people tended to follow an order even when it contradicted their morals to please an authority.
Experiment attempts to test conformity of
people in situations of pressure induced by an
authority.
Agreeable people are thought of as “nice” when in reality they are the ones tending to do harm to others through
the need to please.
Tools to explain Human Behavior
Economics
ASSUMPTIONS Simplified idea,
Claim that has no support,
A supposition
Develop economic theory that can be applied in
various scenarios
Most common assumptions:
EVERYONE REACTS IN A RATIONAL WAY
Existence of FULL POTENTIAL PRODUCTION
“CETERIS PARIBUS”
All other variables
remain the same
can be over simplified (inaccurate, unreliable)
turn complicated situation into
applicable tendency
tool to explain human behavior
Psychology
STEREOTYPES Simplify information
about our world.
Social categorization
allows understanding
of our social world
through stereotypes
Campbell (1967)
Ways in which
stereotypes are formed
Personal Experience:
Grain of Truth Hypothesis
states that we will generalize a behavior of people according to
our experience with an
individual
EXAMPLE: getting mugged by a
black person and generalizing
that most black people will
steal (Baez).
Gatekeepers:
How stereotypes are
perpetuated (media,
parents, others).
EXAMPLE: parents telling a
child to stay away from
black people because most
of them steal (Baez)
inaccurate perceptions of
individuals/groups (unreliable)
generalize characteristics and avoid overload of
information
tool to predict behavior through
categorization
Influences on Human Behavior
Government intervention
Supply-side policies:
Improve efficiency and productivity
Market-based
policies (gov. Does not have active job)
- Removing
unemployment benefits
SUPPOSED
TO MOTIVATE
WORK
(human behavior)
COULD CAUSE
MORE UNEMPLOYMENT
(human behavior
influenced)
Not applicable in every
country because of socio-cultural guidelines
Behavior:
Conformity in Psychology
Solomon Asch (1951)
Aim: to find out to what extent
participants will conform to an incorrect unanimous answer.
Procedure:
o 6 confederates dressed in business
suits + one researcher
o 18 trials (confederates answered
correctly only the first few trials,
then, provided 12 incorrect answers)
o Participant ALWAYS next to last
o All men
o Told they were on a vision judgment
test
Findings:
75% of participants conformed
at least once
32% conformed in half or more of the trials
24% never conformed
FEELINGS
Self-doubt
Did not want to be against the
group
Fear of ruining experiment
Need to belong
Behavior is explained by
how individuals and societies conform and adjust behaviors that
are influenced through the need to belong and
avoid the feeling of being left out.
Accuracy and Inaccuracy
Predictions
Economics
Demand & Supply:
Accurate predictions
Demand: quantity of a good or
service that a person is willing
and able to purchase at a certain
price
Law of demand: as price goes up
quantity demanded goes down
Predictions Price goes up quantity
demanded goes down
Giffen goods: good that is so
inferior that it is easily replaced
by any other good
Veblen goods: good that shows
power or luxury, therefore it is
desired because of its exclusivity
Predictions Price goes down quantity
demanded goes down Price goes up quantity
demanded goes up
Special
Cases:
Inaccurate
predictions
Describe a tendency that occurs within
human behavior in the purchase of goods and services accurately in
general terms and with its exceptions described.
It has inaccuracies that show not all
individuals or
societies act as expected.
Accurate in the tendencies established laws for the
general public, but there are always special cases and
undescribed cases.
Conformity Psychology
Conformity: Accuracy
Conformity provides an
insight for behavior and how individuals may oppose to their beliefs in order to satisfy a
group or be part of it.
Factors
Influencing
Conformity:
Inaccuracy
Conformity may also be influenced by various
factors like: Group Size, Unanimity, Confidence,
Self-Esteem and
Culture.
EXAMPLE: Perrin and Spencer replicated the same study in
1988 in regard to a factor influencing conformity – confidence.
Partially replicated Asch’s study: Procedure
o Participants were engineers and medical students. Findings
Almost no conformity
The more confident participants are on the topic, the less
they will conform.
Behavior is explained by how individuals and
societies conform and
adjust behaviors that are influenced through the need to belong and
avoid the feeling of being left out.
How do the AOK provide an
explanation of the behavior
of individuals and society?
- In Economics as well as in Psychology there is a
large spectrum of circumstances that cannot be
fully explained through the generalization
established.
- When attempting to influence human behavior,
results can be either expected or unexpected.
- Overall AOK are able to explain behavior with
limited accuracy.
RLS:
History
Psychology explains the behavior of German soldiers that worked in concentration camps like the
experiment presented by Stanley Milgram.
German soldiers, as agreeable and obedient people follow an
authority’s order to please them.
Not necessarily because Germans were evil they tortured people in
concentration camps, their behavior is explained through psychology by the need to belong and conformity.
Normative Social Influence
conform to BELONG (Baez).
As Milgram said, “I would say… that if a system of death camps were set up
in the United States of the sort we
had seen in Nazi Germany, one would be able to find sufficient personnel for
these camps in any medium-sized American town” (Harris).
Behavior is explained through Psychology
since German
soldiers/Nazi Germany would conform and
therefore act against their morals.
Real Life Situation: Dollarization
Pre-dollarization
era consisted of an accentuated inflation for the
last 5 years approximately
Solutions previous to dollarization included:
- Reduction of money supply - Increase of Interest Rates
No economic theory seemed to solve the
problem
Excessive and uncontrollable
inflation leads to dollarization
Economic theory cannot
always rely on the expected
human behavior
Economics
cannot explain
why citizens acted in this
way
Sources
Information
Harris, Malcom. "The Psychology of Torture." Aeon Magazine. Aeon Media Ltd., 7 Oct. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. <http://aeon.co/magazine/psychology/why-do-we-keep-repeating-the- milgram-experiments/>. Shim, Eileen. "Psychologists Have Uncovered a Troubling Feature of People Who Seem Nice All the Time." Mic. Mic Network Inc., 30 June 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. <http://mic.com/articles/92479/psychologists-have-uncovered-a-troubling-feature-of-
people-who-seem-nice-all-the-time>. Taken from: Baez, Mónica. “Socio-Cultural Level of Analysis: Social Categorization.” Class. Carcelén, Quito. Psychology.
Images Bartlett, Tom. "The ‘Secret’ Milgram Experiments." Percolator The Secret Milgram Experiments Comments. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 24 July 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2014. <http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/the-secret-milgram-experiments/33173>.
Carey, Benedict. "Decades Later, Still Asking: Would I Pull That Switch?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 June 2008. Web. 14 Dec. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/health/research/01mind.html?_r=0>. Piblogger. "Tenders and the Wisdom of Crowds by Tom Moore."Procurement Insights EU Edition.
WordPress, 09 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2014. <http://procureinsightseu.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/tenders-and-the-wisdom-of-crowds- by-tom-moore/>.