It's clear that during those days, psychopaths successfully passed off as psychologists

pre-war psychologists were really like "when I scare a child, they show symptoms of fear" LIKE NO SHIT, SHERLOCK

"Can you condition a fear in a human test subject?" Yes, it's called trauma

Dr's used 10 orphans to study the condition of stuttering. Five were treated with kindness, patience and encouragement. The other five were constantly criticized, corrected and made to repeat words and speech. The five that were repeatedly corrected and made to speak specifically, developed a stutter. ALL FIVE. They grew up to sue the hospital and staff that used them for the study.

"Can you condition a fear in a person?" Sure you can, it's called subjecting them to abuse.

*Baby's fear died down after several weeks Watson : *"Another one."*

I made my daughter scared of spiders completely by accident, there was one on her foot a panicked and then she cried, then I stupidly said to my partner, get it off her. Turned out to be a piece of crumpled cotton. Even after showing her that it was a piece of string she would scream after we showed it to her. So in effect I had given her a fear of string! My least proud parenting moment but it taught me an important lesson. I was much more careful of my behaviour after that.

Honestly, the thumb sucking being so soothing for Albert that it allowed him to override his fear is something I would find much more interesting to study. What exactly makes self-soothing behaviors self-soothing, and why or how do we humans develop them? (

Watson: Has a book on child psychological care Also Watson: Has two sons that attempted suicide under his parenting

"During the experiment the subject developed a phobia of Behavioral Psychologists"

I love how no one thought of doing this to themselves instead. Of course it’s wrong and they know it and are afraid to go through it themselves but okay.

Fear doesn't always come from abuse. I was terrified of dogs until I was 20 for some reason. That reason being, appearently while at a park with my family a dog came up to me and ate my ice cream. I don't remember this. But was terrified of dogs for basically no reason for years.

They said Albert rarely ever cried before. They ruined this child’s life. So sad

Child: I like this thing. Science: *does awful things whenever thing is involved* Child: I don't like this thing... Science: We're geniuses.

This is basically just "Man's discovery of trauma but they already knew about trauma being a thing, so wtf were they thinking".

That’s torture. To senselessly scare a child is abuse. The child can’t even comprehend why or what’s happening … so sad

Psychologists discover emotional abuse exists, surprised to learn its bad.

“When I scare this newborn, it show fear. SCIENCE!”

“Okay, so I got the baby to fear the rat for a while, but then he stopped reacting.” “Neat! We determined we can transfer phobias but it’s only temporary. So I guess the experiment is over, right?” “…” “The experiment _is_ over, right…?”

Dude I’m 5 minutes into this video & still waiting to hear about the experiment I clicked on the video for. I dont need to know what Watson ate for breakfast on June 15th

"you're lazy!" "ill show you!" * proceds to torture a child *

For the longest time we used to think babies couldn’t feel pain so they were operated on without anaesthesia. We have been so cruel to children :(

As a thumb sucker kid, it really does help in stressful situations and trauma. I'm so glad she pulled him out of that experiment before they messed his brain up!

The thought of any of my kids enduring this type of abuse in the name of science hurts my heart. People can be so evil.

they’re literally just giving him PTSD

Y’know, putting the words “Infant” and “Laboratory”together really ramps up the uncomfortablility of this whole thing....

Franklin D. Roosevelt: _“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”_ John B. Watson: *uses a baby as a test subject in an experiment*

moment of silence for all the humans and animals who went through hell in the name of science & psychology. 🥺

The guy was probably just sadistic, using "experiments" as an excuse to do whatever he wanted.

"What's your job?" Oh I traumatize babies daily.

Imagine this being your legacy, "scientific" torture on a 9-month-old baby. Horrific.

I think the first most glaring issue is the misuse of the word "phobia". A phobia is defined as "an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something." Even if this experiment had run it's course and Albert had developed a fear of something, it would not be an extreme fear nor would it be an irrational one. An extreme fear is typically one that a person is entirely unwilling to confront, causes panic attacks, and triggers "fight or flight" instincts among other physical reactions. And it isn't irrational because the fear can be linked to a cause and something the subject is trying to protect themselves from, in proportion to the perceived threat. Most phobias elicit a reaction that is disproportional to the triggering item. It's 2022 and I often see people talk about "phobias" and PTSD and being "traumatized" by totally mundane events, sometimes because they don't understand the terms and sometimes because they're trying to be funny. I think it's pretty unhealthy because it causes a misunderstanding of the actual issues, their seriousness, and a general disregard for people truly traumatized or phobic of something.

I used to be frightened of dogs as a dog barked in my face while I was in my pushchair as a small child. Was frightened of dogs ever after. I used to have to cross the road if someone came along with a dog even if it was on a lead. Couldnt go into a house with a dog either. Years later my daughter wanted a dog as a pet. I decided I needed to get rid of my fear, so I bought a small puppy only 8 weeks old. As it was like a kitten in size I lost my fear for the dog grew with me and has become a great companion for me and my daughter.

This isn’t even morally questionable or controversial this is straight up abuse

I took a psychology class in 2018 and I distinctly remember my professor teaching to us about this experiment. I also distinctly remember they had inadvertently trained the baby to have fetishes too or something along those lines. Like when they noticed him sucking his thumb to help him calm down, I remember reading that they sexually exploited him to make him calm down or something.

I now want two things - a time machine and a noose.

The child's name was William Albert Barger. He died in 2007. He apparently lived a long and happy life, although his niece was interviewed and claimed he wasn't very fond of animals. To the point that family pets had to be put in another room when he would visit. So thankfully this didn't mess him up too bad. Such a shameful thing to call "science".

I like to imagine that Plainly Difficult and Barely Sociable are brothers from another motherland..

I'm pretty sure all Psych students learned about this experiment at some point in their career. I remember watching this as a first-year thinking "how fascinating this is". 8 years later, having become a therapist and had ethical guidelines drilled into my mind, I rewatched this and only felt disappointed, of the fact that modern Psychology actually benefited from this experiment. At the cost of being unethical in the past.

"infant laboratory" just doesn't really sound right....

If the Infant had to be "Reconditioned" then the data was always useless: Not a good experiment if you have to re-do it over and over, till you get the expected result....

"when shown the rat he begin to cry" wow, children have functioning brains and memory? Finally, some evidence!

So my question is... Why did the parents allow this to happen to their child?! The parents are as liable as the scientists

huh, I'm a psychology college student and Watson was presented to us as a very important figure. could have never guessed that's how his career ended and fell, wow

I would've rated this a 9/10 on an unethical scale. Human experimentation on a subject that cannot consent is bad enough, but it is extra bad as the science is invalid. Only thing that would've been worse would have been permanent mutilation or termination of the human subject.

This hurts my heart, having two kids of my own, just the thought of them being subjected to things that scared them to tears is horrific.

John Hopkins is just all around an icky establishment that you couldn't pay me to go near.

some studies require that the people don't know they are studying them. Maybe that means some things we shouldn't study, but we should be realistic about it

You can stop calling it morally questionable and call it evil.

Oh my, the baby is scared of the creepy fucking serial slaughtering santa mask. I wonder why that is xD

When my son was about 11 years old he entered a Jaycee Relay Race. He’d never ran track before and didn’t know everybody wore shorts. He came in jeans, to everyone’s amusement. He ran the last leg for his team - and came away the fastest runner of the day, and made up considerable distance to win. This video made me think of that day. How I wish I had been able to see it, instead of only hear and read about it. I was a single mom and had to work. My son was an amazing athlete. ❤️

It is sad that Albert was needed to be traumatized for psychologists to change their ethics.

Torturing a baby is OK but having an affair, sack the man. Really?

I was terrified when I learned about this in AP pyschology. It was just abuse of a child justified by "science"

Scientists now: hey lets run some safe tests on mixing salt and water Scientists back then: If I scare this child to death will he survive?

If someone did this to one of my children they would be in great need of a doctor themselves 😨😲 shame on them

Watson: *intentionally terrifies a baby hoping to create phobias* John Hopkins University: this is fine. Also Watson: *has an affair* Also John Hopkins University: this is disgusting and appalling! You're fired! I seriously question the moral compasses of all involved. Well except for the baby, he was the victim of all this shit.

I accidentally scared my daughter with a mannequin head I had while in cosmetology school when she was a baby… now she’s 11 and still terrified of bald heads.

There has been some time since this video’s release, but I have only stumbled upon it now, and since I have some personal experiences that seem relevant to this I’ll just throw in my thoughts now. Growing up, Me and my parents lived with my grandparents, albeit with stairs separating our living spaces. When I was growing up my parents were trying to teach me to walk down and up the stairs, something which upset my grandfather because he worried about me falling down the stairs and injuring myself. My grandparents also had a dog who had a toy that made a particularly upsetting sound and I was really scared of. So to prevent me from walking in the stairs, my grandfather would place the toy I was so terrified of there. This all happened before I turned three where me and my parents moved to another house for a few years before moving back, though at that point I was old enough for that not to be a concern. Later on, at the age of 13 I was diagnosed with a phobia for walking in stairs and/or escalators, something which both my parents and my therapist at the time believed to be caused by my grandfather conditioning my fear of walking in stairs. So just from my own experiences, I would say there is at least some possible merit to Watson’s theory, though it is undoubtedly far from ethical. I do also wish to point out that my grandfather, while his practices were harmful and left me with some issues later on in life, truly loved and only wanted the best for me. He just.. didn’t understand the long-term effects of his actions.

Little Albert grew up and was very normal. He reported he had no I’ll effects from these experiments. Still seems darn creepy

This is so messed up. This was basically just torturing children

That child, when they grew up, must have been afraid of almost everything.

I had an epileptic seizure at 3:42. In future it might be handy to put warnings in for flashing content like that.

The WORST "experiment" about emotional abuse I've ever heard about, has got to be the monkey "pit of despair". Pretty recent, too iirc. Like late 60's or so.

"scaring kids is unethical" Every parent on Halloween:.....

Psychologist: this is how to raise kids. Psychologists kids: Goodbye cruel world. I actually knew a girl (30 something) whos dad was a psychologist. She was nuttier than a fruit cake.

I accidentally learned my daughter's fear was real. I was with my adult niece and 10 month old daughter at the Wax Museum in Dallas. We came to the room of horrors, I was thinking it's not a haunted house, nobody is going to be jumping out and scaring us, so maybe it won't scare my child. Casually walking and observing these wax figures did frighten my daughter 😢 Of course, I quickly left and took her to look at happy figures. Just thought it was strange she had fear of none moving but grotesque figures 😳😯😬💔

How could a mother let him go through that for days! For a whole month! I would have not even agreed for someone to experiment on my baby in the first place.

Senior psychology student here. The widely unknown potential horror of this story is how Watson planned to recondition Albert. Molestation in front of the triggering objects/animals to associate them with pleasure instead of fear. He was a completely evil man.

Aside from the damage this likely did to Albert, it's really upsetting to see how some of the animals were treated as well. Seeing the monkey with the leash tied around its stomach made me feel so sad for it. This whole experiment only involved helpless creatures that have no way of consenting.

I was traumatized by rats as a small child so now I have PTSD and I’ve never been the same since

The way humans have messed with children and animals for their own selfish goals never ceases to disgust me

this is honestly one of the dumbest experiments i’ve ever heard of, the fact that they couldn’t realize that fears are unique based on experiences absolutely baffles me.

As a psychology student, learning about the past and how it worked is honestly terrifying. Psychology was probably the most unethical and immoral sciences when it came to experiments and testing back in the day

Albert wasn’t “fearing” those similar items he was clearly fearing that man

People and Animals need to be partners. If you put them against each other, you need to be dealt with

Even if the child was reacting with fear, how can we say the it was fear of the rat, specifically, instead of fear of the evil man making scary sounds every time certain items are visible?

Ahhh, the good old days when a psychopath could simply be a doctor and "legitimately" indulge their predilections

That’s crazy that they thought babies didn’t experience pain & to go through the lengths of using a child as a test subject

“The child showed signs of being scared of when scared.” They are so smart.

"infant" and "laboratory" are not two words that sound good together

Pavlov : If i ring a bell and give food to a dog, he'll eventually start drooling when he hears a bell ! Watson : That's pretty cool but what if I traumatized a baby instead ?

"Hm I see... When I scare someone.... They get scared" "WRITE THIS DOWN"

After hearing the last bit about Watson's own children, I reckon you may as well have stuck with the Plainly Difficult Disaster Scale.

"albert was crying when the loud sound was made" No shit, Sherlock babies hate loud noises

breaks my heart to see that lil baby cry. i kept hoping he would be comforted but i knew that wasn’t going to happen since their goal was to do the opposite… but still, i really hope he had a good life.

I had to study this for my college course on behaviourism. This video helped out a lot, thank you

Honestly, when I read up on this in my intro to psych course, this was the one of the most useless experiments I've ever seen.

Sherlock comes back from vacation: John why is there a horrified baby in the other room?

Psychologists: "Can you scare a baby" Everyone: "Yes, no duh"

I have a fear of vomit and anything to do with it and I believe it came from seeing how badly my aunt reacted to vomit when I was young bc she is also afraid of it, just not as bad as I was for a long time as well as having a kid in my 1st-3rd grade class that had stomach issues that resulted in vomiting at least every couple of months. I also had a lot of stomach issues as a kid that resulted in vomiting and/or diarrhea and hospital visits. I’ve been going to therapy as vomit is a major trigger for my anxiety disorder and I’ve been getting better at healthily managing my fear.

I dont think he was scared of the items as much as it was the scary people fucking with him

"To induce FEAR, some of the subjects were placed in a dark room or in a room on their own. Needless to say they became distressed". . It's really amazing what these guys discover. (sarcasm)

I accidentally got burned with a curling iron when I was 7. Family member was curling my hair and dropped it and it landed on my foot. Left a nasty burn. 20 years later I will not use a curling iron and even with straightening irons I don't let them get any closer than 6 inches to my face. My trauma was accidental, I can't imagine how this poor kid grew up and if he ever got over the fears instilled in him 😔

Idk why but I always end up watching these dark sides of science videos at really late at night

To be fair that "father Christmas" mask looked terrifying!

As a father of 3, this is absolutely appalling! I would NEVER allow someone to do that to one of my babies. 😠

Seeing him crying breaks my heart :( these "therapists" were fckin psychopaths

I find it very upsetting when child psychology experiments boil down to "let's traumatise this person".

There was very little in terms of beneficence for the subject and a great deal in terms of potential harm. Add on top of all that the lack of control and the act of inflicting all of this on just one child with no real pay off for other children. What a mess of a study.