Whats a social/physiological experiment you'd like to try on humans that would be considered highly unethical?

1. There was a famous study on addiction in the late 70s called rat park, in which one group of rats was put in rat paradise with access to two water supplies, one laced with highly addictive drugs the other just plain water, and a second group of rats each isolated in a small cage with the same water supplies. Doing this to two groups of people, would be fascinating to see how addiction is affected and if it is inherently different between species, and whether intelligence plays an important role in its influence.
   — almighty_lemon


2. Build a huge bio-dome with flora, fauna, bodies of water, glass roof for the sun to enter, simulated rain etc., and place newborn babies in there with grown ups to nurse the child for the first few years, but feed it no information about the world whatsoever, not even language. These people are just there to raise the child to about 4-5 years of age and ensure they are physically healthy and capable. Then leave these kids be, and study their development into adults. I'd be interested to see if they make any "higher power" conclusions or form hatreds of any kind towards one another, how they develop sexually, intellectually and so on.
   — RickyWicky


3. I have always wondered how it would work out if you had a child in some extremely remote portion of the world and raised them to believe it was still the 1800s or some other time in the past. You could deny them all other human contact, or maybe have your significant other in on it. Basically, just keep them away from any and all hints of modern society. Raise them this way until they are a young adult (18ish). Then, one day tell your child that you have discovered a way to travel forward into the future. Get them entirely convinced for and enthusiastic about it. Drug them, drop them off in a major metropolitan area, and see the results. Alternatively: what if you and every other person only wore incredibly scary, inhuman masks while around your human baby? Never let it see anyone without the mask. One day, when it is old enough to talk, get rid of the masks (without letting the child see) and never again wear it.
   — scoldsbridle






4. This was on Reddit before, so it's not my idea. Drug a homeless person. Wash him, cut hair and nails. Put him in a house and have a woman wake him up in the morning. Then everyone pretends that he has an office job and a wife. Hang photo-shopped photos of them all over the house. How would this play out? Another way is to kidnap random people and reassign them to different families in a similar fashion. Can this work with the use of drugs and brainwashing?
   — beginner-triathlete


5. After reading these ideas it seems a bunch of you need to work for Vault-Tec.
   — BlueTengu


6. Put the most content and non-confrontational people together with a tyrannical leader and see how far they have to be pushed in order to force a confrontation. Similarly, would the addition of more and more people lower or increase their tolerance for tyranny?
   — TheUnit472






7. drop 400 1-armed babies into an island (well, *place* so they survive) and 40 1-armed adults and see how they build a society of 1 armed people who don't believe they're disabled at all.
   — black_fire


8. A buddy of mine wanted to raise a kid without ever eating chicken, then give them chicken and ask what it taste like. He wanted to know since everything taste like chicken, what would you describe things if you never had chicken.
   — Lost_in_costco


9. I'd like to pair several newborns at birth with an African Grey parrot companion (which live 60+ years). Might be a breakthrough in himan-parrot communication!
   — Topf






10. Not sure what I would gain from this, but here we go: **TL;DR:** Drive a pianist bat-shit crazy through subtle environmental changes during a repetitive task. I would hire a professional pianist to play the first 12 measures of [1ère Gymnopédie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Xm7s9eGxU) by Erik Satie (which by the way is a beautiful song, if you haven't heard it) in a perfect loop for two hours straight with no speaking, breaks, food or water (this would be very clear beforehand, and if they break this contract, they will not recive payment), and call it a psychological experiment. Mistakes would be allowed, though there would be very specific terms regarding seemingly deliberate carelessness. The whole thing would be recorded, but they will not be permitted to see the recording directly after. The piano would be in a black room, with only one light above it to illuminate the keys, a metronome, and a small digital clock on top of the piano. Little does the pianist know, everything is rigged. The Metronome will be set to 60 beats per minute, and the subject would be told to play at that speed. The room will be 65° Fahrenheit at the beginning. **15 Minutes In:** Hidden speakers in each corner of the room will begin playing a slightly delayed (.5714 seconds) recording at .666... decibels. Gradually, within a one minute period, the delay will increase by .5714 sec., and the volume will increase by .666... dB. This will continue for the duration of the two hours, so at the end, the volume of the playback is 70 dB, and the delay would be exactly a minute. ^^*Disclaimer:* ^^*not* ^^*.666...* ^^*because* ^^*of* ^^*the* ^^*devil,* ^^*it's* ^^*just* ^^*calculations* ^^*that* ^^*bring* ^^*it* ^^*to* ^^*a* ^^*safe* ^^*and* ^^*reasonable* ^^*70* ^^*dB.* **30 Minutes In:** The light above the piano will begin to get slightly brighter gradually over a 30 minute period, than begin to dim gradually for the rest of the two hour period. Once it reaches the normal brightness, as it continues it will also start to turn slightly red. At the end, it will be only just dim enough to see the keys. Also, the temperature will begin increasing at a rate of 0.222...° F per minute, bringing it to 85° F at the end. **45 Minutes In:** The metronome will gradually slow down by .8 bpm over a one minute period. This means after an hour and 15 minutes, it will hit 0bpm, just in time for the end of the two hour period. Just keep in mind, it still says it's 60 bpm. Also, remember that digital clock I mentioned? That slows down with the metronome, a "second" passes for every beat. Seconds will not be displayed, making it much more difficult to judge the passage of time. **60 Minutes In:** Two small, dim, hidden lights just within their field of view on either side begin to randomly blink, with a minimum of 45 sec. passage in between each, and a maximum of 2 minute passage. **90 Minutes In:** The Piano's sustain pedal is now ineffective, the piano now sustains every note. The sustain length begins at .8 seconds, and increases by .8 seconds every minute, lasting 24 seconds by the end. **105 Minutes In:** Speakers, along with the already playing recording, fades in a low ambient 30 Hz (beta) brainwave at 35 dB, which is associated with alertness, arousal, cognition, concentration, and stress [(according to this website, though it might be bullshit)](https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2012/05/how-you-can-use-sound-and-music-to-change-your-brain-waves-with-laser-accuracy-and-achieve-huge-focus-and-performance-gains/). Now, although it has the potential to improve their playing, the whole alertness/stress thing additional to the fact that I'm driving them insane might cause paranoia. This is more of an experiment than anything else here. **119 Minutes In:** The speakers would fade into the sound of a busy city street, ending with the sound of a car horn sounding and getting louder quickly. I just want to see if they think they'll get hit. On top of that, the light would rapidly normalize in brightness and color, as well as normalizing the metronome and clock, beginning to end of the car horn. **120 Minutes In:** The speakers would stop playing. I would open the door to the room, thank them for their cooperation, tell them they did an excellent job, give them their check, and ask them if they'd like to come back tomorrow and do it again so I can gain additional circumstantial results for my research. To top it off, the video recording will be professionally altered, so that it is them playing for the exact two hours, including them playing slower and slower, but the audio will be of only their piano playing, and the sound of a metronome going exactly 60 bpm for the entire two hours. The clock and the metronome will be displayed exactly as they should be, and the lighting in the room will be as close to consistent as possible. A copy of the video will be sent to the person when completed. **Edit:** /u/DanieltheGameGod suggest's we rig their home so we can watch their natural reaction while they watch the video, and I wholeheartedly agree. As a matter of fact, I think we should rig their house before they participate in the experiment directly. That way, we can observe their behavior before and after the experiment, as well as after they watch the video. That would be fascinating.
    — DeadMiner


11. Designate an island with no civilization/comforts to dump people who commit high crimes like murder. Have a drop of rations once every 3-6 months. I'd like to see if they form a hierarchy to try and survive. It'd be interesting to see how they determine who gets to be in what position. Would they stick with murder? Probably.
    — shark___bait