13 psychological experiments that reveal unpleasant truths about you and me

Man and the characteristics of his personality have been the object of interest and study of the great minds of mankind for centuries. And from the very beginning of the development of psychological science to the present day, people have been able to develop and significantly improve their skills in this difficult but exciting matter.

Therefore, now, in order to obtain reliable data in the study of the characteristics of the human psyche and his personality, people use a large number of different methods and methods of research in psychology. And one of the methods that has gained the greatest popularity and has proven itself from the most practical side is a psychological experiment.

We decided to consider individual examples of the most famous, interesting and even inhumane and shocking socio-psychological experiments that were carried out on people, regardless of the general material, due to their importance and significance. But at the beginning of this part of our course, we will once again remember what a psychological experiment is and what its features are, and we will also briefly touch on the types and characteristics of the experiment.

What is an experiment?

An experiment in psychology is a certain experiment that is carried out under special conditions in order to obtain psychological data through the intervention of a researcher in the process of the subject’s activity. Both a specialist scientist and a simple layman can act as a researcher during an experiment.

The main characteristics and features of the experiment are:

The ability to change any variable and create new conditions to identify new patterns;
Possibility to choose a starting point;
Possibility of repeated implementation;
The ability to include other methods of psychological research in the experiment: test, survey, observation and others.

The experiment itself can be of several types: laboratory, natural, pilot, explicit, hidden, etc.

If you have not studied the first lessons of our course, then you will probably be interested to know that you can learn more about experiments and other research methods in psychology in our lesson “Methods of Psychology.” Now we move on to consider the most famous psychological experiments.

The most famous psychological experiments

Hawthorne experiment
Milgram experiment
Stanford prison experiment
Ringelmann experiment
Experiment “Me and Others”
"Monstrous" experiment
Project "Aversia"
Landis experiments
Little Albert
Acquired (learned) helplessness
Boy raised like a girl

A Study of the Effects of Drugs on the Body (1969)

One of the experiments was designed to help scientists understand the speed and degree of human addiction to various drugs. The experiment began to be carried out on rats and monkeys, because these animals are physiologically closest to humans.

The experiment was carried out in such a way that the unfortunate animals were taught to independently inject themselves with a dose of a certain drug: cocaine, morphine, codeine, amphetamine, etc. As soon as the animals were able to “inject” on their own, the experimenters began their observations.

Being under the strong influence of drugs, the animals were very crippled and did not feel pain. Monkeys who took cocaine began to suffer from convulsions and hallucinations: the poor animals pulled out the phalanges of their fingers. Monkeys who “used” amphetamine pulled out all their hair. Animals exposed to cocaine and morphine died within 2 weeks of starting the lethal drugs.

Hawthorne experiment

The name Hawthorne experiment refers to a series of socio-psychological experiments that were carried out from 1924 to 1932 in the American city of Hawthorne at the Western Electrics factory by a group of researchers led by psychologist Elton Mayo. The prerequisite for the experiment was a decrease in labor productivity among factory workers.

Studies that have been conducted on this issue have not been able to explain the reasons for this decline. Because The factory management was interested in increasing productivity; the scientists were given complete freedom of action. Their goal was to identify the relationship between physical working conditions and worker performance.

After much research, scientists came to the conclusion that labor productivity is influenced by social conditions and, mainly, by the emergence of workers’ interest in the work process, as a consequence of their awareness of their participation in the experiment.

The mere fact that workers are allocated to a separate group and special attention from scientists and managers is shown to them already affects the effectiveness of workers. By the way, during the Hawthorne experiment, the Hawthorne effect was revealed, and the experiment itself increased the authority of psychological research as scientific methods.

Knowing about the results of the Hawthorne experiment, as well as the effect, we can apply this knowledge in practice, namely, have a positive impact on our activities and the activities of other people. Parents can improve their children's development, teachers can improve student achievement, and employers can improve their employees' performance and productivity.

To do this, you can try to announce that some kind of experiment will be taking place, and the people to whom you are announcing this are an important component of it. For the same purpose, you can apply the introduction of any innovations. But you can learn more about this here.

You can find out more about the Hawthorne Experiment here.

Contagious yawn

Everyone knows that yawning can be contagious, but did you know that dogs can also catch yawning? A recent study conducted at the University of London found that 72 percent of dogs yawned after observing a yawn. On average, it took dogs 99 seconds to start yawning. While why this happens remains a mystery, researchers believe it may have something to do with the dogs' "empathy capacity."

Milgram experiment

The Milgram experiment was first described by an American social psychologist in 1963. His goal was to find out how much suffering some people can cause to others, and innocent people, provided that this is their job responsibilities.

Participants in the experiment were told that the effect of pain on memory was being studied. And the participants were the experimenter himself, a real subject (“teacher”), and an actor who played the role of another subject (“student”). The “student” had to memorize words from the list, and the “teacher” had to test his memory and, in case of an error, punish him with an electric shock, each time increasing its strength.

Initially, the Milgram experiment was conducted to find out how the inhabitants of Germany could take part in the destruction of huge numbers of people during the Nazi terror. As a result, the experiment clearly demonstrated the inability of people (in this case, “teachers”) to resist a boss (researcher) who ordered the “work” to continue, despite the fact that the “student” was suffering.

As a result of the experiment, it was revealed that the need to obey authorities is deeply rooted in the human mind, even under conditions of internal conflict and moral suffering. Milgram himself noted that under the pressure of authority, adequate adults are capable of going very far.

If we think about it for a while, we will see that, in fact, the results of Milgram's experiment tell us, among other things, about the inability of a person to independently decide what to do and how to behave when someone is “above him” higher in rank, status, etc. The manifestation of these features of the human psyche, unfortunately, very often leads to disastrous results.

In order for our society to be called truly civilized, people must learn to always be guided by human attitudes towards each other, as well as by ethical standards and moral principles that their conscience dictates to them, and not the authority and power of other people.

You can read the details of Milgram's experiment here.

* * *

As mentioned earlier, the number of psychological experiments of questionable correctness amounts to tens and hundreds. In principle, it is almost impossible to conduct any such experiment without violating any ethical standards - but this violation is for the good, since the results of the experiments can help many people and improve society. Moreover, in most cases, experimental subjects participate in experiments voluntarily, and their work is well paid. If only this blessing does not turn into a tragedy for its participants.

Stanford prison experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted by American psychologist Philip Zimbardo in 1971 at Stanford. It examined a person’s reaction to the conditions of imprisonment, restriction of freedom and the influence of an imposed social role on his behavior. Funding was provided by the US Navy to explain the causes of conflict in the Marine Corps and Navy correctional facilities. Men were selected for the experiment, some of whom became “prisoners”, and the other part became “guards”.

The “guards” and “prisoners” very quickly got used to their roles, and sometimes very dangerous situations arose in the makeshift prison. A third of the “guards” showed sadistic tendencies, and the “prisoners” received severe moral trauma. The experiment, designed to last two weeks, was stopped after just six days, because... it started to get out of control. The Stanford prison experiment is often compared to the Milgram experiment described above.

In real life, you can see how any justifying ideology supported by the state and society can make people overly susceptible and submissive, and the power of authorities has a strong impact on the personality and psyche of a person. Observe yourself and you will see clear evidence of how certain conditions and situations influence your internal state and shape your behavior more strongly than the internal characteristics of your personality.

It is very important to be able to always remain yourself and remember your values in order not to be influenced by external factors. And this can only be done with the help of constant self-control and awareness, which, in turn, require regular and systematic training.

Details of the Stanford Prison Experiment can be found by following this link.

Fighting racism

Of course, Albert is far from the only child on whom cruel psychological experiments were performed. Examples (with children) are easy to cite, say, the experiment conducted in 1970 by Jane Elliott, called “Blue and Brown Eyes”. A schoolteacher, impressed by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., decided to demonstrate to her students the horrors of racial discrimination in practice. Her subjects were third grade students.

She divided the class into groups, the participants of which were selected based on eye color (brown, blue, green), and then suggested that brown-eyed children should be treated as representatives of an inferior race, undeserving of respect. Of course, the experiment cost the teacher her job, and the public was outraged. In angry letters addressed to the former teacher, people asked how she could treat white children so mercilessly.

Ringelmann experiment

The Ringelmann experiment (also known as the Ringelmann effect) was first described in 1913 and conducted in 1927 by French professor of agricultural engineering Maximilian Ringelmann. This experiment was carried out out of curiosity, but revealed a pattern of reduction in people's productivity depending on the increase in the number of people in the group in which they work.

For the experiment, a random selection of different numbers of people was carried out to perform a certain job. In the first case it was weight lifting, and in the second it was tug of war.

One person could lift a maximum weight of, for example, 50 kg. Therefore, two people should have been able to lift 100 kg, because the result should increase in direct proportion. But the effect was different: two people were able to lift only 93% of the weight that they could lift 100% of individually. When the group of people was increased to eight people, they only lifted 49% of the weight. In the case of tug of war, the effect was the same: increasing the number of people reduced the percentage of efficiency.

We can conclude that when we rely only on our own strengths, we make maximum efforts to achieve results, and when we work in a group, we often rely on someone else. The problem lies in the passivity of actions, and this passivity is more social than physical.

Solitary work gives us the reflex to achieve the maximum from ourselves, but in group work the result is not so significant. Therefore, if you need to do something very important, then it is best to rely only on yourself and not count on the help of other people, because then you will give it your all and achieve your goal, and what is important to other people is not so important to you.

More information about the Ringelmann experiment/effect can be found here.

Reading other people's thoughts is possible

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Each of us is internally convinced that his consciousness is a private area, inaccessible to anyone. Thoughts, feelings, perceptions are the most protected property because they exist in the mind. But is it?

In 1999, neuroscientist Yang Dan conducted an experiment that showed that the functioning of the brain is, in principle, no different from the operation of a computer. Thus, knowing its encoding, you can easily read the information generated in the brain.

He used a cat as a test subject. Dan fixed the animal on the table and inserted special electrodes into the area of the brain responsible for processing visual information.

The cat was shown various images, and electrodes recorded the activity of neurons at this time. The information was transmitted to a computer, which converted the electrical impulses into a real image. What the cat saw was projected onto the monitor screen.

It is important to understand the specifics of the image translation mechanism. Electrodes are not cameras that capture the image that appears in front of the cat.

Dan, with the help of technology, was able to replicate what the brain does - convert an electrical impulse into a visual image.

Knowing how information spreads in the brain and having the key to reading it, it is not difficult to imagine a computer that could completely read the state of a person’s brain.

Experiment “Me and Others”

“Me and Others” is a 1971 Soviet popular science film that features filming of several psychological experiments, the progress of which is commented on by a narrator. The experiments in the film reflect the influence of the opinions of others on a person and his ability to think out what he was unable to remember. All experiments were prepared and conducted by psychologist Valeria Mukhina.

Experiments shown in the film:

“Assault”: subjects must describe the details of an impromptu attack and recall the characteristics of the attackers.
“Scientist or killer”: subjects are shown a portrait of the same person, having previously imagined him as a scientist or a killer. Participants must create a psychological portrait of this person.
“Both white”: black and white pyramids are placed on the table in front of the child participants. Three of the children say that both pyramids are white, testing the fourth for suggestibility. The results of the experiment are very interesting. Later, this experiment was carried out with the participation of adults.
“Sweet salty porridge”: three quarters of the porridge in the plate is sweet, and one quarter is salty. Three children are given porridge and they say it is sweet. The fourth is given a salty “plot”. Task: check what a child who has tried the salty “plot” will name the porridge when the other three say it is sweet, thereby checking the importance of public opinion.
“Portraits”: participants are shown 5 portraits and asked to find out if there are two photos of the same person among them. At the same time, all participants, except one who came later, must say that two different photos are photos of the same person. The essence of the experiment is also to find out how the opinion of the majority influences the opinion of one.
“Shooting Range”: in front of the student there are two targets. If he shoots on the left, then a ruble will fall out, which he can take for himself, if on the right, then the ruble will go to the needs of the class. More hit marks were initially made on the left target. You need to find out which target the student will shoot at if he sees that many of his comrades were shooting at the left target.

The vast majority of the results from the experiments in the film showed that people (children and adults alike) care deeply about what others say and their opinions. It’s the same in life: very often we give up our beliefs and opinions when we see that the opinions of others do not coincide with our own. That is, we can say that we are losing ourselves among the others.

For this reason, many people do not achieve their goals, betray their dreams, and follow the lead of the public. You need to be able to maintain your individuality in any conditions and always think only with your own head. After all, first of all, it will serve you well.

You can read about the film “Me and Others” in more detail, as well as watch the film itself on this page.

By the way, in 2010 a remake of this film was made, in which the same experiments were presented. If you wish, you can find both of these films online.

“Who will help a lost child?”

People often do not notice what is happening around them. This is what this experiment proved. Flyers with information and a picture about a "missing child" were hung in the doorway of a busy store. Some people glanced at these flyers, while others did not pay attention at all. What all of these people had in common was that they were completely oblivious to the fact that the boy from the flyers was standing right in front of the store. This experiment demonstrates that people tend to ignore many things happening around them.

"Monstrous" experiment

A monstrous experiment in its essence was conducted in 1939 in the USA by psychologist Wendell Johnson and his graduate student Mary Tudor in order to find out how susceptible children are to suggestion. 22 orphans from the city of Davenport were selected for the experiment. They were divided into two groups. Children from the first group were told how wonderful and correct they spoke, and were praised in every possible way. The other half of the children were convinced that their speech was full of shortcomings, and they were called pathetic stutterers.

The results of this monstrous experiment were also monstrous: the majority of children from the second group, who did not have any speech defects, began to develop and take root all the symptoms of stuttering, which persisted throughout their entire lives. The experiment itself was hidden from the public for a very long time so as not to damage Dr. Johnson’s reputation. Then, nevertheless, people learned about this experiment. Later, by the way, similar experiments were carried out by the Nazis on concentration camp prisoners.

Looking at the life of modern society, you are sometimes amazed at how parents raise their children these days. You can often see how they scold their children, insult them, call them names, and call them very unpleasant names. It is not surprising that young children grow up to be people with broken psyches and developmental disabilities. We need to understand that everything that we say to our children, and especially if we say it often, will eventually be reflected in their inner world and the development of their personality.

We need to carefully monitor everything we say to our children, how we communicate with them, what kind of self-esteem we form and what values we instill. Only healthy upbringing and true parental love can make our sons and daughters adequate people, ready for adulthood and capable of becoming part of a normal and healthy society.

More detailed information about the “monstrous” experiment is here.

Raising a Boy Like a Girl (1965-2004)

In 1965, an 8-month-old boy, Bruce Reimer, was circumcised on the advice of doctors. But the surgeon who performed the operation made a mistake, and the boy's penis was completely damaged. The child's parents addressed their problem to psychologist John Money from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA). He advised them to have a “simple”, in his opinion, way out of the situation - to change the sex of the child and raise him in the future as a girl.

And so it was done. Very soon Bruce became Brenda, and the unfortunate parents had no idea that their child had become a victim of a very cruel experiment. Psychologist John Money has long been looking for an opportunity to prove that a person’s gender is determined not by nature, but by upbringing, so Bruce became a suitable object for such observation.

Bruce had his testicles removed, and then for several years Dr. Money published reports in scientific journals about the “successful” development of his experimental subject. He argued that the child behaved like a small active girl and that her behavior was very different from the masculine behavior of her twin brother. But both family at home and teachers at school observed typical boy behavior in the child.

In addition, the parents who hid the cruel truth from their son and daughter themselves experienced very strong emotional stress, as a result of which the mother developed suicidal tendencies and the father began to drink heavily.

While Bruce-Brenda was already a teenager, he was given estrogen to stimulate breast growth. Soon, Dr. Money began to insist on another operation, as a result of which Brenda’s female genital organs would also be formed. But suddenly Bruce-Brenda rebelled and categorically refused to have the operation. Then the boy stopped coming to Mani’s appointments altogether.

Bruce's life was ruined. One after another, he made three suicide attempts, the last of which ended in a coma. But Bruce recovered and began the fight to return to normal human life. He cut his hair, started wearing men's clothes and changed his name to David.

In 1997, he had to undergo a series of operations to regain the physical characteristics of his gender. Soon he even married a woman and adopted her three children. But the happy ending never came: after divorcing his wife in May 2004, David Reimer committed suicide. At that time he was 38 years old.

Project "Aversia"

This terrible project was carried out from 1970 to 1989 in the South African army under the “leadership” of Colonel Aubrey Levin. This was a secret program aimed at clearing the ranks of the South African army of persons of non-traditional sexual orientation. According to official data, about 1,000 people became “participants” in the experiment, although the exact number of victims is unknown. To achieve a “good” goal, scientists used a variety of means: from drugs and electroshock therapy to chemical castration and sex change operations.

The Aversia project failed: it was impossible to change the sexual orientation of military personnel. And the “approach” itself was not based on any scientific data about homosexuality and transsexuality. Many victims of this project were never able to rehabilitate themselves. Some committed suicide.

Of course, this project concerned only people of non-traditional sexual orientation. But if we talk about those who are different from the rest in general, then we can often see that society does not want to accept people “different” from the rest. Even the slightest manifestation of individuality can cause ridicule, hostility, misunderstanding and even aggression on the part of the majority of “normal” people. Each person is an individual, a person with his own characteristics and mental properties.

The inner world of every person is a whole universe. We have no right to tell people how they should live, speak, dress, etc. We should not try to change them if their “wrongness,” of course, does not harm the life and health of others. We must accept everyone as they are, regardless of their gender, religion, political or even sexuality. Everyone has the right to be themselves.

More details about the Aversia project can be found at this link.

Research on cognitive dissonance by L. Festinger

American psychologist, specialist in the field of psychology of thought regulation, social psychology Leon Festinger (1919 – 1989) is the author of the theory of cognitive dissonance. Its essence is as follows: “logically contradictory knowledge about a subject has a motivational function and causes a desire to eliminate these inconsistencies by changing knowledge or social attitudes.” This is precisely what was officially proven in the example of a risky experiment conducted with a sect. It is described in the work of Elena Rumyantseva “Carol Tevris and Elliot Aronson “Mistakes that were made (but not by me).” [1]

Landis experiments

Landis's experiments are also called "Spontaneous Facial Expressions and Compliance." A series of these experiments was conducted by psychologist Carini Landis in Minnesota in 1924. The purpose of the experiment was to identify general patterns of work of facial muscle groups that are responsible for the expression of emotions, as well as to search for facial expressions characteristic of these emotions. The participants in the experiments were Landis' students.

To more clearly display facial expressions, special lines were drawn on the subjects’ faces. After this, they were presented with something capable of causing strong emotional experiences. For disgust, students sniffed ammonia, for arousal they watched pornographic pictures, for pleasure they listened to music, etc.

But the most widespread response was caused by the last experiment, in which the subjects had to cut off the head of a rat. And at first, many participants flatly refused to do this, but in the end they did it anyway. The results of the experiment did not reflect any pattern in the expressions of people's faces, but they showed how ready people are to obey the will of authorities and are able, under this pressure, to do things that they would never do under normal conditions.

It’s the same in life: when everything is great and turns out as it should, when everything goes as usual, then we feel like confident people, have our own opinion and maintain our individuality. But as soon as someone puts pressure on us, most of us immediately stop being ourselves. Landis's experiments once again proved that a person easily “bends” under others, ceases to be independent, responsible, reasonable, etc.

In fact, no authority can force us to do what we do not want. Moreover, if this entails causing harm to other living beings. If every person is aware of this, then, quite possibly, this will be able to make our world much more humane and civilized, and life in it more comfortable and better.

You can read more about Landis' experiments here.

There is no free will

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Does free will exist - the ability of our consciousness to spontaneously intervene in physical processes and direct their movement? Philosophy gives different answers to this question, but science adheres to a very definite point of view.

According to neuroscientist Benjamin Libet, every thought is born unconsciously. Consciousness deals with a ready-made result. It is only a lantern illuminating processes independent of it. Free will in this case is a pure illusion.

A series of experiments he conducted confirms this opinion. Benjamin Libet stimulated different parts of people's brains with electrodes. The delay between the brain's reaction to the stimulus and its awareness averaged half a second. This is precisely what explains the work of unconditioned reflexes - we remove our hand from a hot stove even before we realize the danger and pain.

However, as Libet’s research has shown, this is the mechanism of operation of not only unconditioned reflexes. A person, in principle, is always aware of his sensations with some delay. The brain first sees, and only after that we realize what is visible, it thinks, but only after some time we discover what kind of thought appeared. It’s as if we are living in the past, half a second behind reality.

However, Libet did not stop there. In 1973, he conducted an experiment, the purpose of which was to find out what comes first - brain activity or our desire. Our intuition tells us that we have a will that tells our brain to act in a certain way.

Libet measured people's brain activity as they made conscious decisions. The subjects had to look at a dial with a rotating arrow and stop the process at any time by pressing a button. They then had to name the time when they first became aware of the desire to press a key.

The result was amazing. The electrical signal in the brain that sends the decision to press the button appeared 350 milliseconds before the decision was made and 500 milliseconds before the actual action.

An experimenter observing from the outside can predict a person’s choice that he has not yet made. In modern analogues of the experiment, a person’s volitional decision can be predicted 6 seconds before the person himself makes it.

Imagine a billiard ball that rolls along a certain trajectory. An experienced billiard player, automatically reading the speed and direction of movement, will indicate its exact location in a couple of seconds. We are exactly the same balls for neurobiology after Libet’s experiment.

Human free choice is the result of unconscious processes in the brain, and free will is an illusion.

Little Albert

An experiment called “Little Albert” or “Little Albert” was conducted in New York in 1920 by psychologist John Watson, who, by the way, is the founder of behaviorism, a special direction in psychology. The experiment was carried out in order to find out how fear is formed for objects that previously did not cause any fear.

For the experiment, they took a nine-month-old boy named Albert. For some time he was shown a white rat, a rabbit, cotton wool and other white objects. The boy played with the rat and got used to it. After this, when the boy began to play with the rat again, the doctor hit the metal with a hammer, causing very unpleasant sensations in the boy. After a certain period of time, Albert began to avoid contact with the rat, and even later at the sight of a rat, as well as cotton wool, a rabbit, etc. started crying.

As a result of the experiment, it was suggested that fears are formed in a person at a very early age and then remain for the rest of his life. As for Albert, his unreasonable fear of the white rat remained with him for the rest of his life.

The results of the “Little Albert” experiment, firstly, again remind us of how important it is to pay attention to every little detail in the process of raising a child. Something that seems completely insignificant to us at first glance and is overlooked, can in some strange way be reflected in the child’s psyche and develop into some kind of phobia or fear.

When raising children, parents must be extremely attentive and observe everything that surrounds them and how they react to it. Secondly, thanks to what we now know, we can identify, understand and work through some of our fears for which we cannot find the cause. It is quite possible that what we are unreasonably afraid of came to us from our own childhood. How nice can it be to get rid of some fears that tormented or simply bothered you in everyday life?!

You can learn more about the Little Albert experiment here.

Our “I” is not one

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In neurobiology, there is a method for determining the functions of one or another part of the brain. It consists in eliminating or putting to sleep the area under study and identifying the subsequent changes in the psyche and intellectual abilities of a person.

Our brain consists of two hemispheres, which are connected by the corpus callosum. For a long time its significance was unknown to science.

Neuropsychologist Roger Sperry cut the fibers of the corpus callosum from an epileptic patient in 1960. The disease was cured, and at first it seemed that the operation did not lead to any negative consequences. However, subsequently, profound changes began to be observed in human behavior, as well as in his cognitive abilities.

Each half of the brain began to work independently. If a person was shown a written word on the right side of his nose, he could easily read it, since the left hemisphere, responsible for speech abilities, processes information.

But when the word appeared on the left side, the subject could not pronounce it, but could draw what the word meant. At the same time, the patient himself said that he did not see anything. Moreover, having drawn an object, he could not determine what it depicted.

During observations of patients who underwent callosotomy (dissection of the corpus callosum), even more surprising effects were discovered. So, for example, each of the hemispheres sometimes revealed its own will, independent of the other. One hand tried to put the tie on the patient, and the other tried to take it off. However, the left hemisphere occupied a dominant position. According to scientists, this is due to the fact that the speech center is located there, and our consciousness and will are of a linguistic nature.

When a person with a dissected corpus callosum was shown two words—“sand” and “hours”—he drew an hourglass. His left hemisphere processed the signal on the right side, that is, the word “sand.” When asked why he drew an hourglass, because he saw only sand, the subject went into ridiculous explanations of his action.

The real reasons for our actions are often hidden from ourselves. And we call the reason the justification that we constructed after committing the action. Thus, it is not the cause that precedes the effect, but the effect that constructs the cause.

Acquired (learned) helplessness

Acquired helplessness is a mental state in which an individual does absolutely nothing to somehow improve his situation, even having such an opportunity. This condition appears mainly after several unsuccessful attempts to influence the negative influences of the environment. As a result, the person refuses any action to change or avoid the harmful environment; the feeling of freedom and faith in one’s own strength is lost; depression and apathy appear.

This phenomenon was first discovered in 1966 by two psychologists: Martin Seligman and Steve Mayer. They conducted an experiment on dogs. The dogs were divided into three groups. The dogs from the first group stayed in cages for a while and were released. Dogs in the second group were given small shocks, but were given the opportunity to turn off the electricity by pressing a lever with their paws. The third group was subjected to the same electric shocks, but without the ability to turn it off. After some time, the dogs from the third group were placed in a special enclosure, from where they could easily get out by simply jumping over the wall.

In this enclosure, the dogs were also subjected to electric shocks, but they continued to remain in place. This told scientists that the dogs had developed “learned helplessness”; they began to believe that they were helpless in the face of the outside world. Afterwards, scientists concluded that the human psyche behaves in a similar way after several failures. But was it worth subjecting dogs to torture in order to find out what, in principle, we all have known for so long?

Probably, many of us can remember examples of confirmation of what scientists proved in the above-mentioned experiment. Every person in life can have a streak of failures when it seems that everything and everyone is against you. These are moments when you give up, you want to give up everything, stop wanting something better for yourself and your loved ones. Here you need to be strong, show fortitude and fortitude. It is these moments that temper us and make us stronger. Some people say that this is how life tests your strength.

And if you pass this test steadfastly and with your head held high, then luck will be favorable. But even if you don’t believe in such things, just remember that it’s not always good or always bad, because... one always replaces the other. Never lower your head and do not betray your dreams - they, as they say, will not forgive you for this. In difficult moments of life, remember that there is a way out of any situation and you can always “jump over the wall of the enclosure,” and the darkest hour is before the dawn.

You can read more about what learned helplessness is and about experiments related to this concept here.

"The Source of Despair" (1960)

Dr. Harry Harlow conducted cruel experiments on monkeys. He explored the issue of social isolation of the individual and methods of protection against it. Harlow took the baby monkey away from its mother and placed it in a cage all alone. Moreover, he chose those babies who had the strongest connection with their mother.

The monkey sat in a cage for a whole year and then was released. Subsequently, it was discovered that most individuals exhibited various mental disorders. The scientist concluded: even a happy childhood does not prevent depression. However, such a simple conclusion could have been reached without cruel experiments. By the way, the movement in defense of animal rights began precisely after the results of this terrible study were made public.