Milgram experiment

The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. They measured the willingness of study participants, men from a diverse range of occupations with varying levels of education, to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience; the experiment found, unexpectedly, that a very high proportion of people were prepared to obey, albeit unwillingly, even if apparently causing serious injury and distress. Milgram first described his research in 1963 in an article published in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology and later discussed his findings in greater depth in his 1974 book, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View.

The experiments where created in a trial of understanding the German Nazi war crimes committed in a generalized way. The experiments have been repeated many times in the following years with consistent results within differing societies, although not with the same percentages around the globe.

The experiment consists of 3 people with 3 distinct roles:

• The Experimenter (an authoritative role) carry out by the researcher.
• The Teacher (a role intended to obey the orders of the Experimenter) carry out by a volunteer.
• The Learner (the recipient of stimulus from the Teacher) carry out by a pretender volunteer.

The experiment is hide under the umbrella of a pretending experiment of enhancing learning abilities. The teacher has to punish mistakes of the learner with increasing electrical shocks from 15-V to death voltage. When the Teachers want to stop the Experimenter tries to keep the experiment going on by ordering:

1. Please continue.
2. The experiment requires that you continue.
3. It is absolutely essential that you continue.
4. You have no other choice, you must go on.

The results highlight the perils of obedience and how the responsibility could become fuzzy when the some social or political authority comes to play.

The experiment is done sequentially and increasing the commitment. Probably is related to escalation of commitment?

See also

Somebody else’s problem

Material

• Milgram, Stanley (1974). The Perils of Obedience. Harper’s Magazine.

Papers

• Milgram, Stanley (1963). Behavioral Study of Obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67 (4): 371-8.

Books

• Milgram, Stanley (1974). Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View. Harpercollins.