Stanley Milgram's Obedience To Social Pressure

Obedience to Social Pressure

The social pressure begins since the day a child we born. Our parents give us the first glimpse of the feel of social pressure without the newborn having the littlest idea of what it is. The social pressure of family unity begins when the child is born, and parents have the fear of their own family would retract and speak negatively of their own kids. Is the child ugly? What color is the skin? And many more questions ignite? Parents do fear the worse since their child is born. The reason for not welcoming with love their newborn child, is because they are worried about what others would say, they will be intrigued with uncommon and hurtful remarks from others. Parents feel the social pressure to fit in with the

The reason of his interest was caused by a remark after the trial of Adolf Eichmann, who was on trial for war crimes committed during War World II. The remark was how Adolf Eichmann’s defense claimed he was simply following instructions when he ordered the deaths of millions of Jews. The participation to the learning of Milgram’s experiments draw many subjects with the promise of participation to be paid in the amount of $4.50. It all begins with a shock generator, and the focus is on the person who has the role of the “teacher,” the teacher watches the learner taking part in a learning memory game. The shock generator has many levels of voltage starting from 30 volts and all the way to 450 volts. Instructions have been given to the “teacher”, switches on the panel of the generator are marked with the many levels labelled as “slight shock,” “moderate shock,” “strong shock,” “danger: severe shock,” (Two switches after the last designation are simply marked XXX) (Milgram 632). Just like in Adolf Eichmann’s response that he too was following orders from above, this “teacher,” follows procedure to continue until the point where consequences can happen. During this testing Stanley Milgram concludes that “The essence of obedience” (Milgram 641), in a person by doing what others request no matter the consequences even death. These persons, who obey to the letter of the requestor, or the superior, attribute the entire responsibility to the person who is requesting the behavior of obedience by implementing the orders of bad behavior, instructions, or details to commit murder like the case of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi leader who was responsible for the death of millions of Jews during World War