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The power of conformity: Candid Camera elevator psychology

By ddobbs on May 12, 2009.

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.

Tags
Brains and minds
Science
Candid Camera
conformity
peer pressure
Psychology

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

By kathy hall (not verified) on 13 May 2009 #permalink

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...

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

Like he needs any more money.