Obedience and Group Processes

Yesterday was Group Processes day in my Introductory Sociology class. We covered the more insidious processes - fun stuff like the bystander effect, groupthink, conformity, and obedience. I talked about the classics - Kitty Genovese, Milgram, Asch. I also threw in PrankNET, who in one of their more notable pranks, managed to get three female KFC employees to go outside, remove all of their clothing and urinate on each other. In addition, I discussed the strip search prank call scam, showing the 20/20 video of the case from the state in which I teach. On the instructions of a caller posing as a cop, a McDonalds manager had a girl strip naked, then brought in her fiance, who, over the course of about three hours, proceeded to (on instruction) have her do jumping jacks, spanked her, and had her perform oral sex on him.

The hardest part is convincing people these aren't isolated incidents, and that those involved aren't inherently uncaring or stupid. But you do have to wonder about the spanking and sexual assault. Surely at this point the guy would figure out it's not really a cop on the other line? But with that, the holocaust, and women being murdered in public (I also brought in modern examples of that), it's a depressing day. What I only just now discovered, however, is this more lighthearted example:

Fishing for suckers


Perhaps next time I'll include that one. Maybe emulate Professor Moody's style of teaching the unforgivable curses. Start off with some lighthearted and funny examples, then move on to the more nefarious consequences of those same processes.