Can an Electronic Shock Bracelet Kill Your Bad Habits?
I turned to aversive conditioning to get my time back. It worked.
In the famously horrifying Milgram experiment, often cited as evidence of the depth of humans’ tendency to obey authority, people were told to administer steadily increasing electric shocks to a test subject, to the point of death. People administered the shocks as instructed, even after the person being shocked begged them to stop.
In the experiment, the shocks were fake, thank goodness. But the bracelet I’m wearing on my wrist administers shocks that are very real.
My Pavlok 2 is initially set at its lowest electricity level, 50 volts. When I shock myself, which you do by pressing down on the top of the device, it’s imperceptible.
I bump the shock setting up to 50%, or around 200 volts. This feels like an insect sting. A brief incision of electricity. Uncomfortable, but tolerable.
I try 70%. This shock goes all the way through my body and bounces me a little bit off my seat. It is less tolerable and more something I don’t ever want to do again.
However, for the sake of research, I have to try 100%. I feel like I’m doing both sides of the Milgram experiment at once, but I grit my teeth and go for it: 450 volts.
