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Stanley Milgram Experiment Essay

987 Words4 Pages

Obedience is the glue that sticks people to powerful beings; it is the key factor that allows authoritative personalities to carry out control. Statistical and factual analysis of historical catastrophes, such as the events that took place in the Holocaust, point to the proposal that obedience may be an innate characteristic in humans (Milgram, 1963). However, obedience also serves the purpose of enabling structure in society, and thus, it can be beneficial. Stanley Milgram designed a study to test the true effects and significance of obedience. In other words, he aimed to investigate the extent to which innocent people would go in order to follow instructions. Essentially, the participant was assigned “teacher” and the confederate, who appeared to be another participant, was assigned “learner” in an experiment that was told to investigate the effects of punishment on incorrect memories (Milgram, 1963). Whenever the learner made a mistake, the teacher was ordered to administer shocks. Unbeknown to the teacher, the learner/confederate never received any shocks; he merely acted as though he was in pain. Milgram found …show more content…

Personally, if I were an experimenter in the study, I would go through a lengthy debriefing with the subject. First, I would inform the subject of the deception and of the necessity of it to carry out the research. I would make sure to inform the subject that he/she is not alone, in the sense that most of the subjects followed orders to the maximum voltage and all induced at least some shocks. Furthermore, I would not let the subject leave without reuniting with the learner to prove that the learner/confederate is perfectly safe. Finally, I would confirm with the subjects that they are mentally at peace with having participated in the study and make sure they forgive themselves for any harm they thought they

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