Truth about the beard
In almost all cultures, the hair on the face is a symbol of wisdom. Since childhood, we have been taught that a man with a beard is worthy of respect and praise. But is it true? Professor Jürgen Klaproth conducted research at the University of Nuremberg-Erlangen. He suggested that teachers wear beards for one semester and shave them at the beginning of the next. The results of the survey showed that the students were clearly against the beard, claiming that the teachers looked much less friendly and authoritative, and even less intelligent.
Christ and clones
What happens if you leave people in the same room claiming that each one of them is Christ? That's the question that American psychologist Milton Rockich asked in 1959, who wanted to confuse all three crazy people.
So, one of these people claimed to be God, the other said he created God, and the third said he was the same Christ of Nazareth, though he had nothing to do with the men who claimed to be his relatives.
The purpose of this experiment was simple: to find out what would happen when people faced the obvious paradox. Will they ask new questions about their personality, will it lead to their healing? Unfortunately, none of God's three hypostases doubted themselves. Interestingly, the "gods" did not conflict with each other at all, despite the obvious differences on the level of existence.
Experiments on little Albert
Everyone who has read Aldous Haskley's The Wonderful New World is familiar with the ideas of artificial "programming" of children's reflexes. It turns out that this idea came to the psychologist John B. Watson in the 1920s, when the scientist decided to form a 9-month-old Albert fear of rats. He got what he wanted by making a sharp and frightening noise every time the boy approached a rat. The result of his experience with Albert was his persistent phobia of not only rats, but also fur, fluffy blankets and small animals. It is not known how Albert's fate evolved after such research.
Telekines
Over the past century, several experiments have been carried out to establish the boundaries of the mind once and for all. The simplest example is the experience of a group of volunteers who were asked to move something tiny, such as a coin, with their eyes. These experiments revealed a striking focus on success, but were never backed up by objective evidence of the existence of telekinesis.
The power of faith and ignorance
The experience of Arthur Ellison, a professor of electrical engineering at University College London, with the human mind could easily be called quackery if they did not prove how important faith and ignorance are in people's lives.
Allison offered a group of volunteers to make a vase of flowers levitate. To the surprise of the subjects, the vase was hanging over the table. Of course, it was a hoax, and Allison did his trick with powerful electromagnets. The reaction of unsuspecting participants was interesting. For example, an old lady said she saw a grey substance wrapping around a vase. However, the professor of physics reacted quite differently. As a major scientist, she denied the supernatural, and this belief obscured her living fact. She claimed to the last point that the vase did not move. I don't understand why all this noise," she confessed, "did not take off.
Expert opinion: what the experiment teaches
Vladimir Zinchenko, Doctor of Psychology:
"Of course, the age of experimentation
There's an interesting century above us...
But the tickling moments
Tired of being a cultural man."
Igor Severyanin:
"The experiment teaches the mind-sobriety, protects from paranoia, from utopias... A man is an experimental creature in a square. First of all, he experimented with himself, others, in the world from birth. Second, he is an experimental subject, often a victim of unreasonable, sometimes inhuman experiments. It is in this sense that man is an artificial being (artifact, artifact), because nature does not make people, people make themselves. Sometimes it is successful.
Experiments in science, including psychology, are games with nature and people. Games similar to the theatre of the absurd, because an experiment is the creation of conditions that do not exist in life. Its function is to confirm or disprove the hypotheses that arise at the tip of the "theoretical pen", sometimes clever or sometimes stupid. The beauty of the experiment is derived from intuition, from a scientific idea. "A mistake in the experiment gives rise to a discovery" (Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist, creator of the materialistic doctrine of higher nervous activity). Ethics of psychological experiment is derived from the decency of the researcher. And we should - from the code of ethics, which is not in our psychology."
Thank you for reading!