Milgram Experiment - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

davidmash · #1 08-10-2013, 11:37 PM

Ms Mash is going to school and her Psyc class had her do a paper on the Milgram Experiment. I remember hearing about this when I was yonger but never really looked into it. The French revived the experiment to see if the results could be reproduced.

For those not familiar with the Milgram experiment it showed that an authority figure could convince a person to do something that they normally would not do. The experiment centered around a 'teacher' and a 'student'. The teachers were chosen at random and brought into a room. They were asking questions of a student (student was an actor). Each wrong answer was rewarded with increasing electrical shocks. The student was instructed to resist and complain the higher the shocks till the shocks were high enough and he was stop responding. The results were disturbing. 60% of the teachers went up the full voltage of 450V. They 'killed' the student.

The results in the game show were nearly identical.

I know it is difficult to know what you would do in a situation but I hope that I would not be willing to physically hurt or kill someone because someone told me to do it especially in an environment as described in the studies.

Very disturbing. It puts Nazi Germany, Stallins Russia ... etc in a different light.

Mike D · #2 08-10-2013, 11:41 PM

Hah! When was the last time you had to go to the DMV to deal with a vehicle registration problem?

Brian Carlton · #3 08-11-2013, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidmash

Very disturbing. It puts Nazi Germany, Stallins Russia ... etc in a different light.

If you couple the results of the experiment with an environment where the test subject is considered to be of a much lower class of person.............a person deserving of such abuse............the behavior of the Nazis and Stalin et al becomes crystal clear.

kerry · #4 08-11-2013, 09:35 AM

Just finished reading Becoming Eichmann. He argued he was just following orders and following orders was virtuous. There's a discussion of Milgram's experiment in that book. The author is critical of his work, although I don't think his criticisms undermine Milgram's basic point.

I suspect that obeying authority figures (with authority defined by age) is an instinctual necessity for our species. Our young are born with the need to learn a lot of things before they are capable of surviving on their own. If they didn't believe adults and were naturally skeptical of adult authority, the species would have never survived. Some people never get beyond that basic developmental stage. All this has some connection to Nietzsche's distinction between Masters and Slaves.

MS Fowler · #5 08-11-2013, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerry

Just finished reading Becoming Eichmann. He argued he was just following orders and following orders was virtuous. .

As I have posted in other threads---Humans are capable of rationalizing anything. Maybe that rationalization is a necessity.

On a related note---I went to a production of Shakespeare's 'All's Well that ends well" in Staunton, VA last week. One of the actors has a speech where he argues that the man who loves his ( the actor's) wife is showing true friendship. IOW, the husband was able to rationalize his wife's adultery. Old Willy gave a marvelous illustration of our ability to rationalize--and his illustration carries none of the Nazi/Hitler overtones.

Pooka · #6 08-11-2013, 02:17 PM

I was asked many times to do things that were not quite Kosher during all my years in the oil biz. I always told the higher ups to take a hike or to come in and do it themselves.

I got threatened will all kinds of stuff and once was even put into a position that was impossible, from a physics standpoint, of pulling off. When I pointed this out I was told to deal with it and to think twice before I refused to follow orders. He hated to be told no and he didn't care what the reason might be.

So I put the pencil to it, contacted everyone in the field involved, notified two outside companies to expect a different way of doing things, and pulled it off without a hitch. It took the help of a lot of folks, but it worked. Once they understood this was taking place because of some manager's fit of whiningness everyone was eager to assist.

The manager that cooked up this plot when nuts. I told him when he came up with something difficult he should let me know and I would teach him how this whole refinery operations thing was done.

He put in for a transfer shortly after that. Later I found he had bragged to a lot of the higher ups that he had seen to it that no one would ever disobey him again and when his plan fell apart he thought he looked like an idiot.

Hate knows no master. All you can be sure of is if it serves you today it can turn on you tomorrow.

Botnst · #7 08-11-2013, 05:15 PM

Pride goeth before the fall.

MS Fowler · #8 08-11-2013, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Botnst

Pride goeth before the fall.

I read that somewhere....

The Clk Man · #9 08-11-2013, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Carlton

If you couple the results of the experiment with an environment where the test subject is considered to be of a much lower class of person.............a person deserving of such abuse............the behavior of the Nazis and Stalin et al becomes crystal clear.

What class r u in?