The power of conformity: Candid Camera elevator psychology : Neuron Culture

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I write articles on science, medicine, nature, culture and other matters for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, National Geographic, Scientific American Mind, and other publications, and am working on my fourth book, The Orchid and the Dandelion, which expands on my recent December 2009 Atlantic article. In August 2010, I'll be moving to London for a year to work on the book. I'll also serve as a senior fellow at City University London's MA science journalism program.

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The power of conformity: Candid Camera elevator psychology

Posted on: May 12, 2009 2:04 PM, by David Dobbs

Most of us recognize the power of the urge to conform , but you don't often see it evoked and displayed so starkly as in this old Candid Camera segment. The CC crew seeds an elevator with several crew members who do odd things like face the rear of the elevator car. See how long the naive bystanders who join them hold out against the pressure.

-- Whu-oh: This is where missing video was --

update: Posted here was a wonderful segment as described above. I had found it via Google Video. It was up about 3 hours when I got an email from someone claiming to be from Candid Camera, Inc., asking me to take it down as it was not licensed and I was violating copyright. They asked very politely. I complied.

But I keep having this feeling that I was part of a Candid Camera (Candid Interwebs?) experiment myself.

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Comments

I love CC and this is a good one. Is it legit to put the link up?

Posted by: kathy hall | May 13, 2009 10:06 AM

I missed the video here, but if it's the one I'm thinking of (a black-and-white video from the 60's (?))
then it was a good one. I remember hearing that psychologists were at the time fascinated by the behavior of the victims, and started setting up their own experiments. I wonder if this was before or after Milgram...

Posted by: Pierre | May 13, 2009 7:25 PM

Here it is:
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/710170/

Posted by: Miss Cellania | May 13, 2009 9:53 PM

Phil Zimbardo (of the Stanford Prison Experiment) owns the rights to Candid Camera now.

Like he needs any more money.

Posted by: Anon | May 15, 2009 10:00 PM