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Frogs & Ethics
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| . If frogs are placed in room temperature water - which is slowly brought to a boil, they will stay there until they die. The slight increments don't bother them much
However, if frogs are immediately placed in boiling water, they will try to jump out with all their might
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| Reflections on parallels in frog and human behavior
In the Milgram Experiment subjects were asked to inflict "learners" with slight voltage 15, 30, 45 - if the learners did not get the answers right. Many continued to administer volts to a deadly level 450 volts.
In a sense, test subjects are like frogs. If frogs are placed in boiling water, they will jump out. If subjects were asked to administer 400 volts or 450 volts immediately, they probably would not have done so |
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Aside: What else can we
learn from frogs?
Persistence Pays. Read and reflect on the following
THE FROG IN A MILK PAIL: A frog was hopping around a farmyard when it
decided to investigate the barn. Being somewhat careless, and maybe a
little too curious, he fell into a pail half-filled with fresh milk.
As he attempted to get out of the pail, he found that the sides were
too high to reach. When he tried to stretch his back legs to push off
of the bottom of the pail, he found the milk too deep. However, this
frog was determined to succeed. He kicked and squirmed and kicked and
squirmed, until at last, all of his churning turned the milk into
butter, and he was able to hop out of the pail! (Taken from emailed On
Course Newsletter, Promoting Academic Success with Parables, 8/28/07)
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animations from animation library