Is dark psychology real? Six claims, checked against the studies
Dark psychology is "not a scientific concept," a psychology lecturer told VICE in 2023. Its claims lean on real studies that found less. VICE, 2023
| The myth | The record |
|---|---|
| You can read a lie in someone's body language. | In a review of 206 studies, people were right 54% of the time. Experts did no better. Bond and DePaulo, 2006 |
| A liar looks up and to the right. | In three tests, including 52 real public appeals, eye direction did not tell lies from truths. Wiseman and colleagues, 2012 |
| Hidden messages in ads make people buy things. | A brand flashed too fast to see nudged drink choice in a lab, mainly in thirsty students. Nobody measured shopping. Karremans and colleagues, 2006 |
| Milgram proved anyone will hurt someone when told to. | In 1963, 26 of 40 men went to the end. Across 21 versions, fewer than half did. Milgram, 1963. Haslam and colleagues, 2014 |
| The Stanford prison experiment proved power makes people cruel. | An archive study found the guards were given precise instructions on how to treat the prisoners. Le Texier, 2019 Watch the part that checks it |
| When others are around, nobody will help you. | In 219 filmed street conflicts, at least one bystander helped in 9 of every 10. Philpot and colleagues, 2020 Watch the part that checks it |
Questions
What is dark psychology?
A 2023 VICE article described it as "basically, the art of manipulation." A psychology lecturer it quoted said dark psychology is not a scientific concept.
Is dark psychology real?
A psychology lecturer told VICE in 2023 that dark psychology is not a scientific concept. The studies its claims borrow from are real. This page puts six of those claims next to what the studies measured.
Can you tell when someone is lying?
Not well, on average. In a 2006 review of 206 studies, people judged lies and truths correctly 54% of the time, and experts did no better.
Did the Milgram experiment prove anyone will obey?
In the best known 1963 version, 26 of 40 men went to the end. Across 21 versions with 740 people, 43.6% did. Small changes to the setup moved it from 1 in 40 to 37 in 40.
Do subliminal messages work?
In two lab studies, a brand flashed too fast to see nudged which drink students picked, mainly when they were thirsty. Nobody measured real shopping.
Sources (9)
- Bond, C. F., Jr., and DePaulo, B. M. (2006). Accuracy of deception judgments. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(3), 214 to 234. doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr1003_2
- Wiseman, R., Watt, C., ten Brinke, L., Porter, S., Couper, S.-L., and Rankin, C. (2012). The eyes don't have it: Lie detection and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. PLoS ONE, 7(7), e40259. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040259
- Karremans, J. C., Stroebe, W., and Claus, J. (2006). Beyond Vicary's fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(6), 792 to 798. doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2005.12.002
- Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371 to 378. doi.org/10.1037/h0040525
- Haslam, N., Loughnan, S., and Perry, G. (2014). Meta-Milgram: An empirical synthesis of the obedience experiments. PLoS ONE, 9(4), e93927. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093927
- Le Texier, T. (2019). Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment. American Psychologist, 74(7), 823 to 839. doi.org/10.1037/amp0000401
- Reicher, S., and Haslam, S. A. (2006). Rethinking the psychology of tyranny: The BBC prison study. British Journal of Social Psychology, 45(1), 1 to 40. doi.org/10.1348/014466605X48998
- Philpot, R., Liebst, L. S., Levine, M., Bernasco, W., and Lindegaard, M. R. (2020). Would I be helped? Cross-national CCTV footage shows that intervention is the norm in public conflicts. American Psychologist, 75(1), 66 to 75. doi.org/10.1037/amp0000469
- Sharma, R. (2023, February 2). 'Dark psychology' TikTok is just pickup artistry for women. VICE. A news article, not a study. vice.com
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