Once More unto the Breaching Experiment

Abstract

Instructors frequently utilize breaching experiments in an attempt to “bring sociology to life.” However, an uncritical embrace of breaching experiments obscures the complexity of their possible effects on participants and subjects. These experiments have real potential to inflict deleterious consequences on individuals and groups. Additionally, the presence of videos of breaching experiments on the Internet raises questions about activities students are carrying out and publicly touting as sociological practice. By giving greater consideration to the embeddedness of the breaching experiment and its practitioners in the broader social world, students and instructors can create breaching experiments that are enlightening while still manifesting an appreciation of their effects on the experiments’ “subjects” and perhaps even making a contribution to the amelioration or transformation of the structures within which they take place.