That's  Pretty funny and scary.
Note that they chose the timid Japanese girl as the guinea pig.
Japanese society Is very conformist. I doubt that would work with typical American males.

That's why Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Mao got power and future tyrants WILL get power again without a doubt.  People aka sheeple have not and will not learn no matter how ruthless tyrants are.   All these supposedly normal people never thought of asking the receptionist what the buzzer was, sad.

Pavlovian response. The reward being socially accepted by other limited thinkers.

Pavlovian response. The reward being socially accepted by other limited thinkers.

Pavlovian responses are autonomic -- involuntary, like salivating.

Once conditioned, the involuntary response remains upon presence of the stimulus (the bell) even when the reward is not provided (food).  Salivation doesn't require a cognitive decision to occur.

This experiment is similar, but not based on conditioned response of bodily functions, but rather conformity with a group's actions.  The thought process that created this conditioned response was completely voluntary even after conditioning.  It involved eliminating a negative reinforcement (feeling like an outsider) versus a positive reinforcement (feeling "normal").  The reinforcement was totally contained within the individuals' brains.  No external reward, praise, etc. was offered for conformity.

Similar concepts, but different cognitive paths between stimulus and response, and totally different types of reinforcements -- internal feelings versus external treats.