Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment to find out how far people would go in obeying instructions if it included harming another person. This experiment was also trying to prove how easily an ordinary person could be influenced into committing atrocities such as the Nazi killings in World War II (McLeod, 2007). The experiment was first advertised in the newspaper to look for male participants for the experiment and they were paid $4.50 for participating the experiment which were conducted at Yale University. In the experiment, a participant is assigned with the role of a ‘teacher’ and they were paired up with another person (one of Milgram’s confederates) who took the role as a ‘learner’ (McLeod, 2007). The ‘learner’ were placed inside …show more content…
This obedience occurred even though the learner had mention at first before the experiment that he has a heart problem and demanded to be released during the experiment (Feldman, 2013). Most of the participants continued sending the shocks even though the learner was screaming and shouting. During the experiment many of the participants were uncomfortable and angry at the experimenter and yet they still continued following instructions until the end of the experiment (Cherry, n.d.). These participants had believed that the experimenter would be held responsible for any potential after effects of the experiment and not them therefore continued sending shocks to the learner in the experiment (Feldman, 2013). The results of this experiment has suggested that ordinary people would obey orders given by an authority even though it includes harming another person because they had the mindset of just following orders and not being personally held responsible for any the possible negative outcomes. Although this experiment shows that situational variables have a stronger sway than personality factors in determining obedience, there are other psychologists claim that obedience is greatly affected by both physical and mental factors such as personal beliefs and total character (Cherry,
After finding his 40 male participants aged from 20-50 (each of whom were paid $4.50 for showing up), Milgram made it so that the participant was paired with another person and they drew straws to figure out which one of them would be the ‘learner’ and who would be the ‘teacher’. However, Milgram had fixed the draw so that the participant was always the teacher, and the learner was
The Milgram experiment was conducted in 1963 by Stanley Milgram in order to focus on the conflict between obedience to authority and to personal conscience. The experiment consisted of 40 males, aged between 20 and 50, and who’s jobs ranged from unskilled to professional. The roles of this experiment included a learner, teacher, and researcher. The participant was deemed the teacher and was in the same room as the researcher. The learner, who was also a paid actor, was put into the next room and strapped into an electric chair. The teacher administered a test to the learner, and for each question that was incorrect, the learner was to receive an electric shock by the teacher, increasing the level of shock each time. The shock generator ranged from
He conducted 18 different variations of the original experiment. When changing different variables the obedience percentage dropped significantly. These variations showed that when the “authority” figure was wearing some sort of uniform the obedience levels would rise but when the participants question their authority they percentage decreased. In other variations the learner and the teacher were placed in the same room so the teacher can experience the pain the learner was going through. In this variation the obedience fell too. Throughout all of the variations the percentage of participants administering the maximum 450 volts decreased significantly when different variables were added to the
Milgram (1963) conducted a study on obedience which investigated the extent people would obey to commands that involved harming individuals. There were 40 male participants from New Haven and the surrounding communities that partook in this study of learning and memory, at Yale University, by responding to a newspaper advert. The age range was between 20 and 50; and the participants’ occupation was diverse, ranging from unskilled to professional. Participants were paid $4.50 for entering the laboratory.
The experimenter had four scripted prods for his participants. The first was “Please go on”, the second “This experiment requires you to go on”, the third being “It’s absolutely essential to go on”, and the fourth and most important one “You have no other choice, you must continue” (Milgram 1961). The fourth prod that would be given to the participant was definitely an order. Many of the participants who were given this order and were told had no choice would immediately back out and stop. The subjects are willing to shock another person but as soon as it was said that it was a “must” and an “order” the subjects did not
The two studies being analyzed today are the Stanly Milgram experiment and the Slater experiment. The two similar experiments yielded information about obedience to authority that explains the correlation in society between authority, obedience, and morality. Despite the major ethical problems in the Milgram experiment, it is known in social psychology today that human beings will follow orders from authority figures even to the extent of inflicting harm on another. However, even with this fact, it is also known that there is limits to such obedience.
These results were very revealing about people's obedience to authority. As the subjects in the experiment went on delivering the shocks, they showed signs of deep moral conviction,
To test his theory, Milgram required forty participants in total who had to be twenty to fifty years of age with various backgrounds. All of the participants that came to the study were paid beforehand so that the experiment would not have any flaws by their actions towards getting their money. After receiving the money, it will be theirs to keep with the option
There is a vast amount of research that continues to prove the importance of situational factors in determining human behavior. One of the most profound experiments that helped to prove situational importance was the study conducted by Stanley Milgram. In his article, “The Perils of Obedience,” Stanley Milgram summarized his experiments on the effects of obedience to authority, even when the authority commanded the subject to harm another person.
The Milgram experiment was performed by the sociologist Stanley Milgram to discover the power of authority. In this experiment, Stanley was trying to demonstrate the willingness people have to follow orders from an authority figure. Even thought the results of this experiment were very surprising, I think that this kind of experiments would allows us to study and understand better the human’s nature. This experiment showed a side of human’s nature that was unknown by the scientistic community, and this is the reason why we need to perform more experiment like this one.
Milgram wanted to know if the solders that were involved in the tragic Holocaust willingly were a part of slaughtering more than six million people in the concentration camps. Were the solders psychopaths, or were they just doing as they were told? Werhane also informed that the experiment took place at Yale University in 1960 that consisted of three participants, one was said to be the teacher, the second was the experimenter, and the third was the learner. Although it appeared to the teacher that the roles were assigned by drawing lots, the roles were pre-determined. The teacher was told that the experiment was to help understand the effect of punishment on
The Milgram Experiment is one of the most famous studies in psychology. It was carried out by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist from Yale University. The purpose of the experiment was to study how far people would go in obeying an instruction from an authority figure if it involved hurting another person. Milgram wanted to study whether Germans were more obedient to authority as this was what people believed was the main reason for Nazi killings in World War II. 40 males were chosen to participate in the study, and were paid $4.50 for attending. The experiment was carried out as follows:
In 1984, after the trial of World War 2 criminal Adolph Eichmann, Stanley Milgram created an experiment where his starting hypothesis was to see if Germans had a character flaw which made them more obedient which correlated to the holocaust. He put an advertisement in the newspaper for volunteers for an educational experiment who would be paid on hour for $4.50. The experiment itself wasn’t real, but the participants didn’t know that it going in. The experiment was once they got into the “laboratory”, they picked from a hat and one would get “teacher” and the other “learner” but it is rigged so the participants will always get “teacher”. Jack William who is the experimenter takes the “learner” into a room to strap them into the shock machine while the “teacher” watches and at this time, the “teacher” is informed of the “learners” heart condition and Jack Williams pushes
Stanley Milgram’s central focus for his experiment was to demonstrate how far average Americans would go in inflicting pain on somebody. This experiment was initially conducted in 1963, right after the Eichmann’s trial had happened. “Were these Nazis a different kind of human being” since they were killing the Jews left, and right? Everyone thought that the Nazis had no “thresholds of violence.” From this the world needed an explanation for the Nazis’ behavior, so Milgram decided to give it to them. He wanted to prove that the Nazis weren’t vicious human beings, but what they were doing (killing Jews) was just obeying orders. Therefore, he made a basic outline: take an average American, put them in the “right” environment, and this will change them into a “slaughterous Nazi.” Overall, he just wanted to prove that the Nazis were obeying their orders (Wu, 2003) .
The Milgram experiment is probably one of the most well-known experiments of the psy-sciences. (De Vos, J. (2009). Stanley Milgram was a psychologist from Yale University. He conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. Milgram wanted to investigate whether Germans were particularly obedient to authority figures as this was a common explanation for the Nazi killings in World War II. Milgram selected people for his experiment by newspaper advertising. He looked for male participants to take part in a study of learning at Yale University.