Milgram Experiment

Stanley Milgram, in 1961 as a twenty-seven year old associate professor, conducted a series of experiments that would explore social theory, authority, and obedience, the findings of which would influence and continue to influence psychology’s approach and understanding of these subjects. the exploration of Milgram’s studies delve into the way we understand social influence and deindividualization while the reaction of the blind participant opens a dialogue regarding cognitive dissonance. Inspired by the trial of former Nazi War Criminal Adolf Eichmann whose defense was in large part based upon obedience Milgram’s studies sent out to explore one question in particular could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were …show more content…
The experiment involved a simple vision perspective test, the blind subject was tasked with identifying out of three options which line was the same size as the original line. While the answer was visually obvious the blind participant was in a room with seven other supposed blind participants who in reality were hired actors who had all agreed beforehand on which wrong answer they were going to choose. At the end of the trials the data concluded that one third (32%) of the participants who were involved in trials containing actors chose to conform to the groups incorrect answer, while overall 75% conformed at least once during the trials 25% didn’t conform at all. When questioned afterword why they conformed to the groups choice many maintained that they did not agree with the answer but chose to say they did out of fear of being ridiculed while other believed the group to be simply more knowledgeable. Milgram’s conclusion of his famed experiments in a sense followed a similar reasoning to Asch’s prior studies. Milgram concluded that our response to authority correlates to the way in which we were raised such as those from ordinary backgrounds responded to authority figures more readily due not only to the ingrained nature and lifelong exposure to similar architype figures but additionally due to …show more content…
For many of the blind participants or “teachers” in Milgram’s experiment the experiment showed to be a great emotional distress the majority requesting to halt the experiment before completion as the “student” convincingly yelled out in distress and at times begged to stop the experiment. For each time the participant stopped or paused the experimenter gave one of the four prods the first being simply “continue” if not obeyed followed by the second prod being “the experiment require you to continue.” Increasing in urgency with each disobedience through to the fourth and final prod being “you have no other choice but to continue.” Some participants when given the final prod became noticeably agitated an much more combative some even arguing that they had the choice to quit others offering to return the money they were payed for their participation in exchange for their resignation. Under Milgram original conditions two third of the participants followed through to the end of the experiment while only one third did not. Under the various changes of conditions in retesting’s of the experiment they were met with very different results. In a setting where in the experimenters absence was taken over by a person in ordinary dress compliance of participants dropped to 20% similarly the absence of the experimenters direct

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The Milgram Experiment