Milgram experiment
The Milgram experiment was a series of social psychology experiments conducted in 1961 and later years by Stanley Milgram, a Yale University psychologist. These experiments measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to play the role of a "teacher" in an experiment on memory and learning - a role which involved punishing a third person, the "learner", with electric shocks of increasing voltage for each wrong answer, from an initial 45 volt up to 450 volt, in 15-volt increments.
One of the goals of the experiments was to see if ordinary Americans would obey immoral orders, as many Germans had done during the Nazi period.
The experiment
The role of the experimenter was played by a stern, impassive biology teacher dressed in a technician's coat, and the victim was played by an Irish-American accountant trained to act for the role. The participant and the victim (supposedly another volunteer, but in reality a confederate of the experimenter) were told by the experimenter that they would be participating in an experiment helping his study of memory and learning in different situations.
Two slips of paper were then presented to the participant and to the actor. The participant was led to believe that one of the slips said "learner" and the other said "teacher," and that he and the actor had been given the slips randomly. In fact, both slips said "teacher," but the actor claimed to have the slip that read "learner," thus guaranteeing that the participant was always the "teacher." At this point, the "teacher" and "learner" were separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other. In one version of the experiment, the confederate was sure to mention to the participant that he had a heart condition.
The "teacher" was given a 45-volt electric shock from the electro-shock generator as a sample of the shock that the "learner" would supposedly receive during the experiment. The "teacher" was then given a list of word pairs which he was to teach the learner. The teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner. The teacher would then read the first word of each pair and read four possible answers. The learner would press a button to indicate his response. If the answer was incorrect, the teacher would administer a shock to the learner, with the voltage increasing for each wrong answer. If correct, the teacher would read the next word pair.
The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After the confederate was separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level:
- 75 volts: grunts
- 120 volts: screams of pain
- 150 volts: says he wants to stop the experiment
- 180 volts: screaming "I can't stand the pain"
- 200 volts: horrible screams
- 300 volts: no more replies
- above 330 volts: silence
After a number of voltage level increases, the actor started to bang on the wall that separated him from the subject. After several times banging on the wall and complaining about his heart condition, all responses by the learner would cease.
At this point, many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner. Some test subjects paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment. Most continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible. A few subjects began to laugh nervously or exhibit other signs of extreme stress once they heard the screams of pain coming from the learner.
If at any time the subject indicated his desire to halt the experiment, he was given a succession of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this order:
- Please continue.
- The experiment requires that you continue.
- It is absolutely essential that you continue.
- You have no other choice, you must go on.
If the subject still wished to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, it was halted after the subject had given the maximum 450-volt shock three times in succession. This experiment could be seen to raise some ethical issues as the experimenter did not truthfully tell the people involved what the real test was for.
Results
The results of the Milgram experiment are:
- Obedience rates are very high. Most individuals will hurt others under direction of what they feel is a legitimate authority, even if doing so is extremely stressful or unpleasant to them. They will surrender their personal responsibility to the authority figure, becoming like a puppet.
- Most continued the experiment when being told they "have to continue". More than 60 percent continued up to fatal voltages.
- None of the participants who refused to administer the final shocks insisted that the experiment itself be terminated, nor left the room to check the health of the victim without requesting permission to leave.
- In a variant of the experiment participants had to physically hold the "learner's" arm onto a shock plate, compliance decreased. But even in this variant, 30 percent completed the experiment.
- Obedience did not significantly differ whether the participants were male or female.
Milgram created a documentary film titled Obedience showing the experiment and its results.
The Milgram experiments have been described as frightening in their implications about the danger lurking in human nature's dark side.
Interpretations
Professor Milgram elaborated two theories explaining his results:
- The first is the theory of conformism, based on Solomon Asch's work, describing the fundamental relationship between the group of reference and the individual person. A subject who has neither ability nor expertise to make decisions, especially in a crisis, will leave decision making to the group and its hierarchy. The group is the person's behavioural model.
- The second is the agentic state theory, wherein, per Milgram, the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, and he therefore no longer sees himself as responsible for his actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred in the person, all of the essential features of obedience follow. This is the foundation of military respect for authority: soldiers will follow, obey, and execute orders and commands from superiors, understanding that responsibility for their actions rests with the commanding superior officers.
See also
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Milgram_experiment ]
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