8 Shockingly Unethical Experiments That Actually Happened

5. Learned Helplessness

If you've ever felt powerless in a situation, you might have been experiencing something called 'learned helplessness', the psychological effects that makes a situation seem hopeless even if it isn't and is thought to be one of the underlying causes of depression.

In order to study the effect, psychologists Mark Seligman and Steve Maier conducted experiments with dogs and electric shocks back in 1965. They split dogs up into three groups and put them in harnesses: Group one were simply kept and then released after a certain amount of time, group two were given electric shocks that could be stopped by pressing a lever, and group three were given electric shocks, but the shocks didn't end when the lever was pressed.

Later, the dogs were placed, unharnessed, in a box and given shocks. They could easily have escaped the shocks by simply moving away, but the dogs from group three stayed there, assuming that there was nothing they could do.

Aside from the act of repeatedly electrocuting poor pups, the dogs from group three then went on to exhibit classic signs of clinical depression.

Be right back, going to hug my dog.