Re: Warrentless Search

[Tom Allard <m1tca00@FRB.GOV>]

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Blanc Weber <blancw@microsoft.com> writes:
[...]
> This isn't herd instinct; it's innocence & ignorance.  If someone can 
> recognize the situation for what it is and has knowledge of what is 
> required, they will proceed to contribute according to their informed 
> judgement.  If they are not sufficiently familiar with the meaning of 
> what they are facing, then they will be amenable to guidance or to the 
> appearance of knowledgeable authority.
> 
> If you seem to know what the right thing which needs to be done to 
> correct a problematic situation, they will accept your commands; but if 
> it is recognizable that you don't know what you are talking about or 
> what is apropos, you will lose their following.

Stanley Milgraine experiments:

  Subjects were told they were participating in a "learning" study,
  and a confederate was strapped into a chair and electrodes were
  attached (the subject did not know that the confederate was always
  in the chair and was led to believe that they could have been in
  the chair).  The subject is then taken to an adjacent room and the
  confederate is given tasks to perform.  When the confederate made
  an error, the subject was instructed to administer an electric shock,
  with increasing voltage as the study progressed.

  The results were astounding.  ALL subjects continued to administer
  shocks after the confederate began screaming from the other room.
  When he began kicking at the wall, some subjects would stop.  Most
  (90%, I believe) would continue when the examiner would tell them
  that the study would be invalidated if they refused.

  A follow-up study explained the details of the study to new subjects.
  They were told about the confederate and let in on the "secret", and
  then asked how far they would've gone if they were the subject (they
  were not told the actual results).  NONE of the subjects said they
  would have continued with the experiment through the end, even though
  75% (I believe) of the real subjects did.

This is mostly from memory, but the experiment is widely cited in
Psych texts.

This shows that, in real situations, people will follow herd instincts
and obey orders.

rgds-- TA  (tallard@frb.gov)
[awaiting approval of new disclaimer]
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