The Human Factor: GSB Behavioral Lab Moves Research Forward
One study at the Stanford Behavioral Lab found that whether or not participants followed a researcher in lockstep decided the fate of pill bugs down the hall. This information on synchronous activities could be meaningful in determining how businesses function. | Illustration by Brett Amory
Stanford GSB’s underground B-Lab brings to light new insights about human interactions.
Experiments exploring human behavior can take many forms and use unexpected tools … pill bugs and coffee grinders, for example. A famous experiment carried out by the Stanford GSB Behavioral Lab in 2008-09 used the creepy-looking nocturnal isopods and coffee grinders to examine a concept called “synchrony.”
In the study, each participant was asked to follow an experimenter down a long hallway to a small room. There, he or she found cups filled with pill bugs, along with a coffee grinder. The task? Grind up the pill bugs. The experiment revealed that the people who were asked to follow the researcher in lockstep rather than walk naturally were willing to grind up more bugs — 54% more bugs, in fact.
The study demonstrated that certain cultural practices can make people more likely to engage in destructive obedience at the behest of authority figures. Don’t worry: No insects were harmed, as the coffee grinders were disabled. The findings shed light on activities that can influence leader-follower relations, which could impact how business organizations and corporations function.
Housed in the Patterson Building’s basement, the Behavioral Lab (or B-Lab) studies human subjects, helping faculty and PhD students design experiments that can fundamentally change the way that organizations – and their people – behave and interact.
The lab came to life in 1997 when Margaret Neale — now the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emerita — was an associate dean. Few university behavioral labs existed at the time. “It was clear to me that having this resource would substantially improve the quality of research possible for Stanford’s faculty and PhD students,” Neale says.
At any given time, faculty members and students are conducting no fewer than half a dozen experiments. In a single academic year, more than 7,000 study participants will filter through this basement, and more than a quarter-million will participate online.
Now, the lab’s research has become essential not only to Stanford GSB but to the business world at large. Concepts like reciprocity, inequality, power, and even happiness are better-understood thanks to research here. Says B-Lab Director Nicholas Hall, “This lab exists for whatever the faculty is working on.”
Read the full, original story to learn more about the research studies conducted in the Stanford GSB Behavioral Lab.
