Did you ever do social experiments?

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I was not complaining or trying to be pedantic; believe me, if I was I would have made it a point to humiliate you publicly. Maybe you do not understand the implications of what I said: if all experiences of a person are social experiments, then that would mean that one may gather data and draw conclusions about anything that one does, without the need for specifically set up social experiments. Do not be so quick on the trigger next time and care to analyze what people are saying.

Last edited by kBillingsley on 25 Mar 2012, 10:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not sure if I would call it "experimenting", but I enjoy a good religious debate with a good christian every once in a while. And when I say 'debate', I mean pointing out some really ridiculous facts about the bible. And when I say 'good christian', I mean someone who is only interested in their point of view on a certain god.

Actually, I think I may do some experimenting. I think to figure out the "correct" way to respond to certain situation?!?

And if you had made a point to publicly humiliate me then it would have been moderated for attacking a poster probably. I understand what your saying know only because you said it more clearly,

Then I suppose we are in peaceful accord, without any further need for argument?

What's behind it is a perfectly normal developmental process - for little kids. And until they learnt enough (for their age) of the effects of it and largely mastered catching other people's attention in appropriate and inappropriate ways, regulating their desires/emotions depending on the situations they're in/so that they do not affect other important people too much, so on.

For developmentally delayed people that learning process might come much later and possibly never come to a typical and "socially appropriate" conclusion.

Malicious version of it = extremely crude but gets a lot more reactions than finely adjusted and perfectly normal, everyday "manipulation" gets out of people. If you can't go about it the socially appropriate and "in tune" way, crude and possibly malicious is your option for getting a response, of course.

I did a social experiment in Grades 11 and 12 by living the hippie lifestyle just to see what it would be like. It was an experiment that I've been wanting to do since I was 13, so I did it.

How was it?

Very often, I pick a side in an argument and try to put my sense of logic to good use. Sometimes, I've convinced people something was true when I knew full well it was wrong.
Additionally, it's interesting to set up a certain social situation and let it unfold. I've considered to, on Valentine's Day, send out several cards supposedly from a random person to a random person of the opposite sex.
When people do not seem to understand me, I try to turn it into a game. I argue, I behave unacceptably, and I try to chase them out as soon as possible.

Another thing I do - mostly as a social experiment, but partially out of pride - is never properly give up on an argument or debate. I do not get quiet at any point, even if I'm wrong.
Generally, I try to push through, question logic used by others, keep my interpretation of the situation in mind and not get thrown off by taking their interpretation for granted, which is something almost all people try to make me do during arguments. Basically, when you've accepted their notion of reality as a basic given, you'll be more inclined to be talked into either believing them or just generally giving in.

If I say, for example, that banks should be banned because they've caused a financial crisis, and you take the underlying logic as a flawless given, you'll have very little of a point against it.
When I'm feeling bad, people are my social playthings. It's all good fun, though. Except the time when I was very young and almost drowned my sister because I wanted to see how long a human being could remain under water.

Come to think of it, I'm a bit of an immoral bastard.

Exactly what I was going to say.

Sometimes I like to test my theory that people aren't as moral as they pretend to be. I've asked people before what they would do if I told them that I had killed someone.

The responses were fascinating – most of them were along the lines of, "I'm sure you had your reasons." They didn't even bother to ask me if it was true. (It's not, in case anyone is wondering.) Theory confirmed. How easily the mask of morality slips.

Yes, I have done. Not in real life communication - too risky because I'm too capable of making unintentional faux pas as it is. But I've done it online, and I too have sometimes been intrigued by doing experiments which tested people's morality and integrity. I posted about one of these social experiments on WrongPlanet, which I described here: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt182302.html

As you can see, people thought it was a stupid experiment, but it's an example of a social experiment. And at least there was no element of malice. Not towards the persons I was chatting with anyway.

I also did other social experiments, again whilst chatting online. The story this time was I bumped into a neighbour in the street. The scenario (totally false of course) is just because he seemed like a 40 year old virgin I accused him of being a paedophile, jostling him, threatening him with violence etc. I'm pleased about the fact that every single person I told this to disapproved of this, either quietly or by telling me to grow up, not to judge people etc.

Yet I did the same experiment again with a slightly changed story, the difference being the neighbour was in the apartment block with me and I was threatening him there and trying to somehow drive them out. This time, most people were either in favour of this course of action or at least not committally against it. What's the difference? Beats me.

These stories do describe a malicious situation, but with no actual malice since none was directed at the person I was telling the story to, and also the neighbour doesn't exist since they are all made up scenarios and so no malice could be directed at them. Otherwise I would not do the experiment.

They are all scenarios I'd never carry out in real life, and were just to test people's integrity. Unfortunately overall, as many people failed these integrity tests as passed them.

I'm often bored and destructive so yes, I can be playfully misleading for fun and games, love and learning

However, I do maintain a strong ethical stance when toying around with others, flaming, or spouting misleading rhetoric for effect. I try to keep my heart in the right place

Play fighting is all fun and games till someone loses an eye, then they go crying to mama.

I love to play games