Under orders, decent human beings will do anything. This experiment shows that people will obey authority figure even when there is no pre-existing relationship between the individual and the person of authority.
Stanley Milgram wanted to observe the influence of obedience on people. First off, obedience is changing one's behavior in response to an authority figure. An authority figure is someone who has social influence and power, such as a teacher or work manager. Milgram was curious to see how far people would go in obeying the authorities and what factors influenced obedience upon them. The incidences with Nazi Germany sparked the study of obedience among many researchers and especially Stanley Milgram. During the Nazi area, the Nazi soldiers committed many cruel acts, such as gassing the Jews and executing innocent lives. Were these soldiers naturally cruel and heartless or were they simply following orders? Milgram set out to discover the answers to these questions. This set the stage for one of the most famous experiments in psychology. In the experiment, he assigned participants two main roles, one administering electrical shocks (the "teacher") and another was given a simple memory test (the "learner"). If the learner received a wrong answer, he would be given a shock by the teacher instructed to do so by Milgram himself. The more the learner got wrong, the more powerful the shock each time. In the end, in the presence of an authority figure, Stanley Milgram, 65% of the teachers would go all the way to the highest volt shock. This shows how much influence the presence of a higher authority can have on people.
All of these are correct
The subject had to put the learner's hand directly on the shock plate.
Milgram claimed that he wanted to measure the effects of punishment on learning. In actual fact, the "learner" participant was a stooge, and the person being studied was the "teacher." He was measuring how compliant the average person is with inappropriate and dangerous orders coming from an authority figure. This was operationalised by how many volts the people were willing to shock the stooge with.
Stanley Milgram conducted his famous obedience experiments at Yale University in the early 1960s. The studies took place in a laboratory setting, where participants were instructed to administer electric shocks to a "learner" as part of a learning experiment. Milgram's research aimed to explore the extent to which individuals would follow authority figures, even when it conflicted with their personal conscience.
Approximately 65% of the experimental subjects in Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments eventually applied the maximum 450-volt shock to the learner despite the learner's expressions of pain and desire to stop.
Stanley Milgram's experiment investigated the effect of authority on people's willingness to do unethical things, stemming from the experiences of the Holocaust. I think his hypothesis was that if people are pressured by a person of authority to do something, they will do it, even if it is against their moral code.
Stanley Milgram's hypothesis for the obedience experiment was that ordinary people would obey the instructions from an authority figure to administer electric shocks to a learner, even if it went against their conscience. He wanted to test how far individuals would go in following orders, regardless of the consequences.
the teacher had to put the learner's hand on a shock plate.
Stanley Milgram wanted to observe the influence of obedience on people. First off, obedience is changing one's behavior in response to an authority figure. An authority figure is someone who has social influence and power, such as a teacher or work manager. Milgram was curious to see how far people would go in obeying the authorities and what factors influenced obedience upon them. The incidences with Nazi Germany sparked the study of obedience among many researchers and especially Stanley Milgram. During the Nazi area, the Nazi soldiers committed many cruel acts, such as gassing the Jews and executing innocent lives. Were these soldiers naturally cruel and heartless or were they simply following orders? Milgram set out to discover the answers to these questions. This set the stage for one of the most famous experiments in psychology. In the experiment, he assigned participants two main roles, one administering electrical shocks (the "teacher") and another was given a simple memory test (the "learner"). If the learner received a wrong answer, he would be given a shock by the teacher instructed to do so by Milgram himself. The more the learner got wrong, the more powerful the shock each time. In the end, in the presence of an authority figure, Stanley Milgram, 65% of the teachers would go all the way to the highest volt shock. This shows how much influence the presence of a higher authority can have on people.
In the original experiment (Yale University, scientist and teacher in the same room, pupil separated by screen), about 2/3 of subjects continued to the final 450-Volt electrical shock. Out of those who refused, only one teacher refused to go higher than the 300-Volt level. All 40 teachers turned around and questioned the scientist at some point in the experiment. Later experiments varied the set-up and it's pointless to list them here. For example, when Milgram did the experiment in a rundown back-street office (as opposed to the world-famous Yale University), 1/2 of the teachers were fully obedient. When the scientist gave instructions over the telephone instead, teachers were more likely to stop the experiment (some even pretended to be doing it). Similarly, if the pupil was directly in front of the teacher, he would also be less obedient. All these experiments used men; when Milgram did the same experiment with women they were equally obedient but more visibly stressed. When Milgram added 'obedient' assistants, 90% of teachers continued to the end. When Milgram used 'rebellious' assistants, only 10% of teachers would continue. If there were two scientists in the room disagreeing over whether to continue the experiment, none of the teachers continued towards the end.
In Milgram's experiment, a confederate is an actor who is part of the research team but pretends to be another participant. Their role is to simulate the experience of being a "learner" who receives electrical shocks, creating a scenario where the actual participant, the "teacher," believes they are administering these shocks. The confederate's responses are scripted to evoke emotional reactions from the teacher, thereby testing the limits of obedience to authority. This setup is crucial for assessing how far individuals will go in obeying orders, even when it involves harming another person.
All of these are correct
In Milgram's study, the purpose and aim of the experiment is deliberately withheld from the participants. This leads to a number of deceptions:They are told that another participant is the learner. This is actually a stooge.They are told that lots are drawn at random. It is actually rigged.They are told that electrical shocks will be given. None actually are.They are told that the experimenter is measuring how punishment effects learning. They actually measure how long until the participant disobeys.
Under orders, decent human beings will do anything. This experiment shows that people will obey authority figure even when there is no pre-existing relationship between the individual and the person of authority.
The subject had to put the learner's hand directly on the shock plate.