The Milgram Experiment: Obedience to Authority

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

The Milgram Experiment is an experiment in social psychology conducted by a resident of the United States of America Stanley Milgram in 1963. The psychologist himself studied at Yale University. Stanley first introduced his work to the public in his article "Submission: A Study in Behavior." Somewhat later, he wrote a book on the same subject, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental Study, published in 1974.

In the twentieth century, many experimental studies were carried out, but the most striking were psychological experiments. Since the conduct of such studies affects the ethical standards of a person, the result obtained becomes the subject of public discussion. Stanley Milgram's obedience experiment was just that.

A lot is known about this experiment, and it is called the most cruel for a reason. The subjects had a veiled task to awaken the sadist in themselves, to learn to deliver pain to others and not feel remorse.

Backstory

Stanley Milgram was born on August 15, 1933 in the Bronx, a disadvantaged area of New York. ATRefugees and migrants from Eastern Europe settled in this area. One such family was Samuel and Adele Milgram, with their three children, who moved to the city during the First World War. Stanley was the middle child. He received his first level of education at the James Monroe School. By the way, Philip Zimbardo studied with him in the class, who also became a famous psychologist in the future. After both became successful, Zimbardo began duplicating Milgham's research topics. What it is - imitation or really thoughts in unison, still remains a mystery.

After graduating from high school, Stanley entered King's College in New York and chose the political science department. But after a while he realized that this was not his element. In explaining this, he said that political science does not take into account the opinions and motivations of people at the proper level. But he completed his studies, and decided to enter graduate school in another speci alty. While studying at college, Milgram was seriously interested in the speci alty "social psychology". He decided to continue studying this speci alty at Harvard. But, unfortunately, he was not accepted due to lack of knowledge and experience in that area. But Stanley was very determined, and in just one summer he did the impossible: he took six courses in social psychology at three New York universities. As a result, in the fall of 1954, he made a second attempt at Harvard, and was accepted.

First mentor

During his studies, he befriended a visiting lecturer named Solomon Ash. He became for Milgramauthority and example for further growth in the field of psychology. Solomon Asch gained his fame thanks to the study of the phenomenon of conformity. Milgram assisted Ash in both teaching and research.

After graduating from Harvard, Stanley Milgram returned to the United States and continued to work at Princeton with his mentor Solomon Ash. It is worth noting the fact that, despite the close communication between men, there were no friendly and easy relations between them. Milgram treated Ash solely as an intellectual educator. After a year of work at Princeton, he decided to go into independent work and began to develop a scheme for his own scientific experiment.

The meaning of the experiment

In Stanley Milgram's cruel experiment, the task was to find out how much suffering ordinary people are willing to inflict on others if it is part of their job responsibilities. Initially, the psychologist decided to experiment on people in Germany during the period of Nazi domination in order to identify individuals who could participate in the destruction and torture in concentration camps. After Milgram perfected his social experiment, he planned to go to Germany, as he believed that the Germans were more inclined to obey. But after the first experiment was conducted in New Haven, Connecticut, it became clear that there was no need to go anywhere, and it was possible to continue working in the United States of America.

Briefly about the Milgram experiment

The result showed that people are not able to resist the authoritative authorities, who were ordered to make other innocent people suffer by passing electric charges through them. The result was such that the position of the authorities and the duty of unquestioning obedience were deeply embedded in the subconscious of the common people, that no one can resist the decrees, even if they contradict the principles and create an internal conflict for the performer.

As a result, this cruel experiment of Milgram was repeated in several other countries: Austria, Holland, Spain, Jordan, Germany and Italy. The result turned out to be the same as in America: people are ready to inflict pain, torture and even death not only on a foreigner, but also on a compatriot, if the higher leadership so requires.

Experiment description

Milgram's Obedience Experiment was conducted on the campus of Yale University. More than a thousand people took part in it. Initially, the essence of the actions was simple: to offer a person more and more actions that would be contrary to his conscience. The key question of experience would therefore be: how far can a person go in inflicting pain on another until obedience to a mentor becomes contradictory for him?

The essence of the experiment was presented to the participants in a slightly different light: a study of the effect of physical pain on human memory functions. The experiment involved a mentor (experimenter), a test subject (further a student) and a dummy actor in the rolesecond test subject. Next, the rules were stated: the student memorizes a long list of pairs of words, and the teacher checks how accurately the other learned the words. In case of a mistake, the teacher passes an electric charge through the student's body. With each mistake, the battery level increases.

The game has started

Before the start of the experiment, Milgram arranged a lottery. Two sheets of paper with the inscriptions "student" and "teacher" were asked to pull out each participant, while the teacher was always given to the subject. The actor in the role of a student walked to a chair with electrodes attached to it. Before the start, everyone was given a demonstration shock with a voltage of 45 volts.

The teacher went into the next room and began to give assignments to the student. With each mistake in memorizing pairs of words, the teacher pressed the button, after which the student was shocked. The rules of Milgram's submission experiment were that with each new error, the voltage increased by 15 volts, and the maximum voltage was 450 volts. As mentioned earlier, the role of the student is played by an actor who pretends to be electrocuted. The answer system was designed so that for every correct answer, the actor gave three wrong ones. Thus, when the teacher read a couple of words to the end of the first page, the student was already threatened with a blow of 105 volts. After the subject wanted to proceed to the second sheet with pairs of words, the experimenter said to go back to the first and start again, reducing the current shock to 15 volts. This indicated the seriousness of the intentionsexperimenter and that the experiment will not end until all pairs of words have been completed.

First contradiction

When reaching 105 volts, the student began to demand an end to the torture, which gave the subject a lot of remorse and personal contradictions. The experimenter spoke to the teacher several phrases that prompted the continuation of actions. As the charge increased, the actor acted more and more in pain, and the teacher became more and more hesitant in his actions.

Climax

At this time, the experimenter was not inactive, but said that he took full responsibility for the safety of the student and for the entire course of the experiment, and that the experiment should be continued. But at the same time, there were no threats or promises of reward towards the teacher.

With each increase in tension, the actor begged more and more to stop the torment, towards the end he screamed heart-rendingly. The experimenter continued to instruct the teacher, using special phrases that were repeated in a circle, each time the subject hesitated.

In the end, each experiment was over. The results of Stanley Milgram's obedience experiment amazed everyone.

Stunning results

According to the results of one of the experiments, it was recorded that 26 of the 40 subjects did not take pity on the student and brought the torture to the maximum discharge of current (450 volts). After turning on the maximum voltage three times, the experimenter gave the order to end the experiment. Five teachers stopped at 300 volts when the victim began to exhibitsigns that he can no longer endure (knocking on the wall). In addition, the actors stopped giving answers at this point. Four more people stopped at 315 volts when the student knocked on the wall a second time and gave no answer. Two subjects stopped at 330 volts when both knocks and responses stopped coming. One person each stopped at the following levels: 345 in, 360 in, 357 in. The rest have reached the end. The results obtained truly frightened the people. The subjects themselves were also horrified at what they might get to.

Full information about the experiment

For more information about Stanley Milgram's "Submission to Authority" experiment, see his book "Submission to Authority: An Experimental Study". The book is published in all languages of the world and it will not be difficult to find it. Indeed, what is described in it fascinates and horrifies at the same time. How Stanley Milgram came up with just such an experiment and why he chose such a cruel method remains a mystery.

The theme of obedience to authority, developed by a social psychologist back in 1964, is still sensational and shocking. The book is worth reading not only for psychologists, but also for people of other speci alties.