psychology book

Here is a link to a psychology book Natalie showed me, which seems to shed reality on the true behavior of humans in comparison to how humans perceive themselves. It definitely is interesting to see some insight into 'the reality' of human behavior, but obviously with a paper that is trying to show 'the reality', I have to be skeptical. But the papers I have read so far have been pretty interesting.
        One talks about how people to tend to form groups and discriminate naturally rather than be accepting of others, referencing a study in which two groups of boys were staying in a state park in Oklahoma and allowed to do what they wanted. A critical part of the study was that each group did not know the existence of the other and that they were nearby. Within days, both groups established leaders, and when the groups learned of each others exsitence, they turned on each other, in a way similar to Lord of the Flies, as Natalie mentioned. This is kind of intense.
          Also, there is a paper on how buttons that we press in our daily lives may not actually perform the action we think they do, such as the close-door button on elevators, which by law do not work. This shows that we are conidtioned to believe that our action of pressing the button made the door shut, even though it did not. They said this was no different than a mouse pressing a lever to get cheese.
            Finally, there was a paper on the backfire effect, in which people, with a certain belief, when presented with contradictory evidence to there belief, start to believe even more strongly in their belief. The paper points out the effect of the internet, which I read to say that  the availability of information with the internet has allowed people to become stronger in there biases, rather than made it so people get the real information. This is interesting becaause it seems that people would want to accept the truth, but human nature may not work that way. This seems like it could be a true effect.