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The Purpose Of The Milgram Experiment

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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: participants were introduced to a partner, although they were all actors the pairs drew straws to see who was going to be acting as a learner, and who would be acting as a teacher. This part of the experiment was rigged so the unknowing participants would always be the teacher the pairs were split up into seperate rooms where the learner was strapped to an electric chair the learner has already learned a list of word pairs that were given to him, and the teacher tests them by naming a word and asking the learner to recall its pair. the teacher was told to give an electric shock every time the learned made a mistake. There was a different voltage of shock each time, ranging from 15 to 450 volts. The teacher did not know, but the shocks were not actually administered. The learner made mistakes on purpose, and faked harm when they were ‘electrocuted’. If the teacher did not want to

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