The Field of psychology is an extensive area consisting of many sub-specialties. Each of these specialties has been strengthened over the years by research studies designed to prove or disprove theories and hypotheses that capture the interest of psychologists worldwide.
While hundreds and thousands of studies are completed in various specialties of psychology each year, some have had a lasting impact on the psychological community as a whole over the years. Some were conducted with a sense of duty within the boundaries of ethics and practical guidelines. Others pushed the boundaries of the field, sparking debates that continue to this day. Still, others were not designed as actual psychological experiments but served as markers to the psychological community in proving or disproving theories.
Here is a list of the top 5 most influential psychological experiments still taught to psychology students today.
1.A Class Divided
Conducted by: Jane Elliott
Study conducted in 1968 in an Iowa classroom.
Experiment Details: Jane Elliott's famous experiment was inspired by the life and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the aftermath of his assassination. The third-grade teacher developed an exercise to help Caucasian students understand the effects of racism and prejudice.
Elliott divided her class into two separate groups: blue-eyed students and brown-eyed students. On the first day, she labeled the blue-eyed group as the superior group, giving them extra privileges, and left the brown-eyed children to represent the minority group. She discouraged interaction between the groups and selected individual students to emphasize the negative traits of the minority group. What the exercise demonstrated was that the children's behavior changed almost instantly. The blue-eyed group performed better academically and even started bullying their brown-eyed classmates. The minority group experienced lower self-esteem and poorer academic performance. The next day, she reversed the roles of the two groups, with blue-eyed students becoming the minority group.
At the end of the experiment, the children reportedly relaxed to the point of hugging each other, realizing that people should not be judged based on their appearance. This exercise has been replicated many times since with similar results.
2.Asch Conformity Study
Conducted by: Dr. Solomon Asch
Study conducted in 1951 at Swarthmore College.
Experiment Details: Dr. Solomon Asch conducted a groundbreaking study to evaluate the likelihood of an individual conforming to a standard when there is pressure to do so. In a group of participants, various images containing lines of different lengths were shown, followed by a simple question: Which line is the longest? The challenging part of this study was that in each group, only one person was a genuine participant. The others were actors following a scenario. Most of the actors were instructed to give incorrect answers. Strangely, the single genuine participant, even when aware they were providing wrong answers, almost always agreed with the majority.
This study's results are significant when examining social interactions among individuals in groups. This study is a famous example of the allure many of us feel to conform to a standard during group situations and demonstrated that people often care more about being in agreement with others than being right.
3.Bobo Doll Experiment
Conducted by: Dr. Albert Bandura
Study conducted between 1961 and 1963 at Stanford University.
Experiment Details: In the early 1960s, a significant debate arose about whether genetics, environmental factors, or social learning shaped a child's development. This debate, known as the Nature vs. Nurture Debate, is still ongoing. Albert Bandura conducted the Bobo Doll Experiment to prove that human behavior is based largely on social imitation rather than hereditary genetic factors.
In his groundbreaking study, participants were divided into three groups: one exposed to a video of an adult showing aggressive behavior towards a Bobo doll, another exposed to a video of a passive adult playing with the Bobo doll, and a control group. Children watched the video assigned to their group and were then sent into the room with the Bobo doll (except for those in the control group). The researcher found that children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior toward the doll, while the other groups showed little imitation of aggressive behavior. Additionally, the study showed that when males were exposed to aggressive male models, they exhibited more aggression than males exposed to aggressive female models. Similar gender-based results were found for females.
4.Car Crash Experiment
Conducted by: Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer
Study conducted in 1974 at the University of California, Irvine.
Experiment Details: The concept of cognitive dissonance, which refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, creating internal discomfort that leads to a change in attitude, belief, or behavior, was first explored by Leon Festinger following an observational study of a cult that believed the world would be destroyed by a flood. In addition to this study, a fascinating experiment was born out of the collaboration between Loftus and Palmer. The 1974 Car Crash Experiment was designed to assess whether phrasing questions in a specific way would influence a participant's recollection of memories related to a particular event.
Participants watched slides of a car crash and were then asked to describe the events as if they were eyewitnesses. The participants were divided into two groups, and each group was questioned using different wording, such as "How fast was the car going when it hit?" versus "How fast was the car going when it smashed?" The challenging part of this study was that the only difference in the wording of the questions. The results showed that the use of different verbs significantly influenced the participants' recollection of the accident. The study demonstrated that questioning technique could easily manipulate memory, meaning that information gathered after an event could combine with the original memory, leading to false recollection or reconstructive memory. Adding false details to the memory of an event is now referred to as confabulation. This concept has significant implications for the questions used in police interviews by eyewitnesses.
5.Cognitive Dissonance Experiment
Conducted by: Leon Festinger and James Carlsmith
Study conducted in 1957 at Stanford University.
Experiment Details: The concept of cognitive dissonance, which refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, creating internal discomfort that leads to a change in attitude, belief, or behavior, was first explored by Leon Festinger following an observational study of a cult that believed the world would be destroyed by a flood. In addition to this study, a fascinating experiment was born out of the collaboration between Loftus and Palmer. The 1974 Car Crash Experiment was designed to assess whether phrasing questions in a specific way would influence a participant's recollection of memories related to a particular event.
Participants watched slides of a car crash and were then asked to describe the events as if they were eyewitnesses. The participants were divided into two groups, and each group was questioned using different wording, such as "How fast was the car going when it hit?" versus "How fast was the car going when it smashed?" The challenging part of this study was that the only difference in the wording of the questions. The results showed that the use of different verbs significantly influenced the participants' recollection of the accident. The study demonstrated that questioning technique could easily manipulate memory, meaning that information gathered after an event could combine with the original memory, leading to false recollection or reconstructive memory. Adding false details to the memory of an event is now referred to as confabulation. This concept has significant implications for the questions used in police interviews by eyewitnesses.