Take a look at these social experiments, the results of which may really surprise you.
If the field is left unattended, will people pay for agricultural products?
Self-service points are located along the roads. Each person can take a flower, fruit or vegetable. There is also a sign indicating how much each of the products costs, as well as a box in which you can put money. No one is watching her. Each person makes his own decision.
In Germany, where this experiment is carried out, there are practically no cases of theft. Sometimes people even leave more money than they need to. The income usually goes to charities.
What happens if some drivers are punished and others are rewarded?
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A roadside camera records the speed at which the vehicle is moving. Offenders receive a letter with a fine, while respectable drivers receive a letter of thanks and a lottery ticket. The main prize is paid from the fines of the violators. This experiment was carried out by Volkswagen. Before the experiment, the average speed was 32 kilometers per hour, and during the experiment it decreased by 22 percent, to 24 kilometers per hour.
What happens if a musical staircase is installed next to the escalator?
As part of the experiment, the usual staircase was replaced with a musical one. When you step on a step, you are playing a note on the grand piano. The bottom line was for people to use the stairs instead of the nearby escalator. During the experiment, people began to climb stairs 66 percent more often. The concept became so popular that it began to be used in many cities around the world, for example, in Seoul, Mexico City, Vienna, Sarajevo, San Francisco, Kuala Lumpur and so on.
Can people discern talent, or just love what's popular?
Members of U2 disguised themselves as regular street musicians and played a free concert in a New York City crossing. Tickets for their concerts are sold in a matter of hours and are very difficult to acquire. Will passers-by be able to recognize the world's talent in unknown street musicians? People didn't pay attention to the musicians until they showed their true faces. The same experiment was carried out by Cristiano Ronaldo in Madrid. People weren't interested in the talented soccer player who was dressed like a homeless person until he took off his mask.
What happens if people start reading bad news every day?
A group of Facebook users viewed only negative posts for seven days. Some of the posts contained very emotional content. About 700 thousand people took part in the experiment. This kind of news changed the behavior of users on the web, because of which they began to show negative emotions and post bad news themselves. Negative news affected people as if events happened to them in reality, becoming a part of them.
How to unite people with different views?
Three pairs of strangers had to go to the warehouse together. They needed to interact while building a certain structure and ask each other questions invented by scientists. At the end of the experiment, the participants found that their partners had a completely different belief system. And each of the participants had to decide if he wanted to get to know his partner better. The couples consisted of an adversary and a proponent of global warming, a feminist and a proponent of conservative views, as well as a transgender and an adversary of gender reassignment. Although their views were fundamentally different, they all agreed to get to know their partners better after the experiment.
What happens if unemployed people are paid more than € 500 a month?
Two thousand people in Finland received 560 euros for nothing over two years. This money was paid to them instead of unemployment benefits, and no one forced them to look for work. But even if they got a job or started their own business, they continued to receive this money. Some of the participants displayed reduced stress levels. For Finland, this amount is low, but at the same time stable income, thanks to which people were able to choose the job they want, open their own business or continue their studies to expand their opportunities.
What happens if web users are given freedom of action and some free space?
A public project was launched on the Internet, which was an online canvas on which each person could choose a pixel for themselves and fill it with a specific color. To paint another pixel, you had to wait five minutes or act as a group. User groups created beautiful images, and groups of "guards" protected them from vandals. However, after a while, the "guards" began to choose which images could be taken, which is why users began to simply fill everything in black in protest. The project existed for 72 hours and demonstrated the interaction of people on the web.
How does parental support affect children?
The teacher divided the class into two groups based on eye color. During the first day, blue-eyed children received privileges, praise, and support, while brown-eyed children wore a special bandage and had no privileges. On the second day, the groups changed places. The group of children who had the support of teachers began to show better results in their studies, but at the same time began to have a negative attitude towards the second group. The same thing happened when the groups switched places.
What happens if all foreign products are removed from store shelves?
During the weekend, the Edeka supermarket in Hamburg left only products that were produced in Germany on the shelves. Visitors had to contemplate empty shelves. This campaign was carried out against any form of racism, it showed German buyers how bad the country's life would be if it did not interact with other countries.
How do people see themselves and how do strangers look at them?
An experienced FBI forensic artist painted portraits of people from their own descriptions without seeing them. And then he painted portraits of the same people from the words of strangers. As a result, people got their portraits, while learning an important lesson. All portraits based on self-descriptions were very different from those that were made based on descriptions of strangers. The average person is more likely to exaggerate their flaws, while the stranger is more neutral in describing their appearance.
How does taxi music affect passengers?
The taxi driver changed the music in the car once a week and watched how this affected passenger behavior and his rating in the mobile application. When he played rock music and retro songs, his rating dropped. Rap had a negative impact on most of the passengers and its ratings dropped dramatically. Some people have enjoyed the latest hits, but the best results have been achieved by combining classical music with a bit of rock.
How similar are people?
67 people were invited for a DNA test to determine their origin. Almost every participant was confident about their roots and had prejudices about other nations. The test determined that none of the participants belonged to a particular race or ethnicity. Almost every participant had prejudices against the nation, the genes of which were found in their DNA.
Marina Ilyushenko