Posted by KRICO on March 26, 2001 at 06:31:54:
In Reply to: This whole thing makes no sense to me posted by El_Cabrio on March 25, 2001 at 23:41:17:
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I haven't heard the PG song, but he must have known about the actual experiment where researchers told a group of subjects to "shock" a real human being who was hooked up to "electrodes" and behind a glass partition. The subjects were told that even though the "shockee" might exhibit signs of discomfort, the jolt of electricity was not enough to cause physical damage. The "shockee" was, in reality, an actor who would gradually indicate that what the "shocker/subjects" were doing to him was in fact killing him. The researcher would keep encouraging the shockers to continue "increasing" the voltage and to not worry, that the guy being shocked was just exaggerating his pain and discomfort. This was of course, literally true since the "shockee" was an actor, ....but the "shockers" didn't know that... The point of the experiment was to try and determine if the voice of authority could over-ride human compassion...i.e., "Keep shocking him!"..."I can't. The guy's havin' a heart attack..." "Do as I say. Increase the voltage..." You get the picture... Sadly, most of the subjects were willing to continue the "shocking"...because they trusted and obeyed the voice of authority over their feelings of discomfort about doing the authority's bidding.... People are sheep... KRICO |
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