10 Experiments That Will Shake Your Trust In Humanity

Is humanity truly as flawed as it seems? Despite the multitude of stories about people displaying kindness and doing good deeds, it's hard to ignore the fact that, at times, we are our own greatest adversaries. Here are some experiments that reveal just how bleak and troubling human nature can be.

10. The Deceptive Nature of Wealthy Individuals

There are many tales of wealthy individuals generously donating their wealth to help those in need. Yet, a 2012 study conducted in the United States found that, in reality, the rich tend to be more cutthroat in their daily interactions. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Toronto discovered that drivers of high-end cars were four times more likely to cut off other drivers compared to those in more affordable vehicles. Additionally, they were observed cutting off pedestrians with the right of way three times more frequently than their less-affluent counterparts.

In addition to the observations in the field, the researchers performed a variety of lab-based experiments. Their findings revealed that wealthier individuals were more inclined to lie and cheat in order to get what they desired. Surprisingly, it was also shown that rich people were more likely to take candy from a baby. The researchers concluded that wealth has the ability to warp an individual's moral compass and social standards, increasing their likelihood of engaging in behavior that others may view as unethical.

9. The Visual Influence on Eating Habits

Our eyes can be deceiving, especially when it comes to food. Brian Wansink, a psychologist and nutrition expert from Cornell University, demonstrated the powerful effect of visual stimuli in a series of food experiments involving unsuspecting participants. In his most well-known experiment—which earned him an Ig Nobel Prize—Wansink had 54 subjects eat from four different bowls of soup in a typical restaurant setting. Unknown to them, two of the bowls were rigged with a mechanism that caused them to automatically refill.

As expected, participants using the never-ending bowls consumed 73 percent more soup than those with regular bowls. Surprisingly, they didn't believe they had eaten more or felt fuller than the others. The experiment confirmed Wansink's hypothesis—that when there’s more food on our plate, we tend to eat more.

8. Some People Deliberately Run Over Animals On The Road

How many rational people would intentionally run over a helpless turtle? Apparently, quite a few, as Clemson University student Nathan Weaver discovered in his research. His experiment—initially designed to help endangered Eastern box turtles safely cross the roads of South Carolina—took an unpleasant turn when he observed that 1 in 50 drivers would deliberately run over a plastic (thankfully) turtle he had placed on the road.

To confirm that this wasn’t a one-off, Weaver placed the plastic turtle on a different road, and the results were identical. While many found the discovery shocking, some seasoned scientists weren’t as surprised. Hal Herzog, a psychology professor at Western Carolina University, suggested that some individuals may feel the need to demonstrate their dominance over the animal kingdom. What better way to assert their superiority than by running over a turtle?

7. Another Obedience Experiment With Grim Findings

In a more realistic adaptation of the infamous Milgram obedience experiment, psychiatrist Charles Hofling conducted a study on obedience with 22 unsuspecting nurses in 1966. One of his colleagues posed as a doctor, giving the nurses orders over the phone to administer a fictional drug called “Astroten”—which was actually harmless sugar pills—to a patient at twice the prescribed dose. Despite being told the drug was highly toxic, all but one of the nurses obeyed the order.

Afterward, the nurses justified their actions by claiming it was standard practice to follow doctors’ instructions, even over the phone. What made the results even more fascinating was that a separate group of people interviewed during the experiment said they would refuse such an order. Hofling described this as a paradoxical behavior among nurses—a conflict between their professional duty to care for patients and their obedience to authority figures.

6. Babies Are Surprisingly Manipulative

It may seem like only grown-ups exhibit manipulative behavior, but it turns out even our little ones are quite skilled at it. Japanese psychologist Hiroko Nakayama discovered that babies often fake crying to get their caregiver's attention. Her team observed two babies, and while both typically cried because they were genuinely upset, there were times when the crying was a calculated move. The most revealing incident occurred when one baby, at 11 months old, cried initially, but then smiled and laughed as soon as the mother attended to them.

While this might appear to be evidence of babies’ manipulative behavior, Nakayama explains that this action serves a positive purpose. It helps babies better connect with their caregivers, which plays a crucial role in their emotional and social development.

5. We Are All Basically Conformists

While we may occasionally display moments of non-conformity, the truth is that we often readily sacrifice our individuality and beliefs to blend in with the group—even when the group is clearly wrong. In 1953, American psychologist Solomon Asch demonstrated this in his well-known Conformity Experiment. He showed a set of vertical lines to a group of five students and asked each of them to identify which line was the longest. What the fifth student didn’t know was that the other four participants were in on the experiment and had been instructed to deliberately give the wrong answer.

Asch repeated his experiments with multiple groups of students and discovered that one-third of them conformed to the group's incorrect answer, even when it was clearly wrong. Only a few dared to give the correct answer, and even they showed more signs of stress compared to those who simply went along with the majority.

4. We Can Overlook What’s Right In Front Of Us

Let’s face it—sometimes we all fall victim to inattentional blindness, where we fail to notice something unexpected because our focus is directed elsewhere. In 1999, American psychologists Daniel Simons and Chris Chabris demonstrated this phenomenon in a humorous way with their now-famous Invisible Gorilla Test. They asked participants to watch a video of people in white and black shirts passing a basketball. The task was to count how many passes the white team made.

As the participants were focused on counting the passes, a person dressed in a gorilla suit walked through the middle of the group, beat his chest, and then walked out of the scene. Afterward, the psychologists found that half of the participants completely missed the gorilla because they were so focused on the counting task. This experiment clearly showed that attention plays a key role in what we perceive and see in our environment.

3. We Are All Potential Fascists

It's a sobering thought, but deep down, there might be a Hitler lurking within all of us, as demonstrated by this infamous 1967 study conducted in a California high school. When a student asked how so many regular Germans could have supported Nazism, history teacher Ron Jones created a microcosm of a fascist state called 'The Third Wave.' His intention was to show how easily even democratic societies can fall victim to the lure of authoritarianism. He imposed strict discipline, making students follow drills and respond with terse answers.

By the following day, the class had adopted a motto and salute, with students vigilantly monitoring their peers for signs of defiance or non-membership. Before long, students from other classes tried to join The Third Wave, drawing the concern of faculty and parents. Seeing the experiment spiral beyond control, Jones decided to end it. He gathered his students into an empty auditorium on the last day, under the guise of a national announcement. Instead, he showed a video of Hitler at a Nazi rally, then shocked the students by revealing that they had, in essence, become Nazis during the experiment.

2. People Will Invest Resources Anonymously Just to Undermine Others

It's normal to feel a bit envious every now and then—it’s a natural human emotion. But a study has shown that many people would go as far as spending their time and money just to see their competitors fail, as long as they’re not caught. Researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Warwick discovered this unsettling truth when 116 participants played a betting game with real money over a computer. The study revealed that two-thirds of participants were willing to sacrifice their own money just to spoil their competitors’ winnings. Even when the price of sabotaging someone increased, they kept doing it.

The researchers also observed that while the winners tended to burn money randomly, the losers specifically targeted the winners. One of the researchers, Andrew Oswald, suggested that this darker side of human nature might be linked to status. He theorized that people are so focused on their social standing that those in higher positions protect it fiercely, while those at the bottom are willing to do anything to bring them down.

1. We Will Lie To Ourselves In Order To Maintain Harmony

In a pioneering 1959 study, American psychologists J. Merill Carlsmith and Leon Festinger revealed that people will lie to themselves in order to resolve cognitive dissonance—a mental discomfort that arises when two conflicting beliefs clash. For their experiment, Carlsmith and Festinger had male college students perform the monotonous task of turning pegs for an hour. Once the task was finished, the students were asked to lie to the next participant (who was actually a part of the research team) by telling them that the task was enjoyable. The participants were paid either $1 or $20 for their involvement.

Interestingly, the psychologists discovered that those who were paid only $1 showed a more upbeat attitude compared to those who were paid more. They concluded that the lower payment caused these participants to experience more cognitive dissonance, which they resolved by increasing their positive feelings—essentially tricking themselves to keep their internal balance intact.