Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

136 Chapter 5
In a memorable experiment, elegant in its simplicity of design, Doob and
Gross (1968) had a car stop at a red light and wait for 15 seconds after the
light turned green before moving again. In one experimental condition, they
used a new car and a well-dressed driver. In another condition, they used an
old, beat-up car and a shabbily dressed driver. They repeated the experiment
many times and measured the time it took for people in the car behind the
experimental car to start honking their horns. It won’t surprise you to learn
that people were quicker to vent their frustration at apparently low-status cars
and drivers.
Piliavin et al. (1969) did a famous naturalistic experiment to test the ‘‘good
Samaritan’’ problem. Students in New York City rode a particular subway
train that had a 7.5-minute run at one point. At 70 seconds into the run, a
researcher pitched forward and collapsed. The team used four experimental
conditions: The ‘‘stricken’’ person was either black or white and was either
carrying a cane or a liquor bottle. Observers noted how long it took for people
in the subway car to come to the aid of the supposedly stricken person, the
total population of the car, whether bystanders were black or white, and so on.
You can conjure up the results. There were no surprises.
Harari et al. (1985) recruited drama majors to test whether men on a college
campus would come to the aid of a woman being raped. They staged realisticsounding
rape scenes and found that there was a significant difference in the
helping reaction of male passersby if those men were alone or in groups.
The Small-World Experiment
Consider this: You’re having coffee near the Trevi Fountain in Rome. You
overhear two Americans chatting next to you and you ask where they’re from.
One of them says she’s from Sioux City, Iowa. You say you’ve got a friend
from Sioux City and it turns out to be your new acquaintance’s cousin. The
culturally appropriate reaction at this point is for everyone to say, ‘‘Wow, what
a small world!’’
Stanley Milgram (1967) invented an experiment to test how small the world
really is. He asked a group of people in the midwestern United States to send
a folder to a divinity student at Harvard University, but only if the participant
knew the divinity student personally. Otherwise, Milgram asked people to
send the folders to an acquaintance whom they thought had a chance of knowing
the ‘‘target’’ at Harvard.
The folders got sent around from acquaintance to acquaintance until they
wound up in the hands of someone who actually knew the target—at which
point the folders were sent, as per the instructions in the game, to the target.