What's the most intriguing psychology experiment you've ever heard of?
I really like the experiment that was conducted in Stockholm, Sweden to provide evidence for the Fun Theory.
The hypothesis was that people could be encouraged to make positive changes to their behaviour simply by introducing a "fun element" into the scenario.
For the experiment, they placed a 'keyboard staircase" into the exit of a subway station and observed that 66% more travellers chose to climb the stairs (choosing a healthier but more difficult option) over taking the escalator to the surface.
Although pretty simple, I really like this experiment because it shows that making things entertaining can encourage people to make positive decisions - and who doesn't want that?!
Here's another pretty cool application of the theory, this time used to persuade the public to recycle their trash:
