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Stanley Milgram's Obedience To Social Pressure

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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 …show more content…

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

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Ian Parker, author of “Obedience”, provides accurate depictions of the immediate and long-term effects of Dr. Stanley Milgram’s Experiment. In addition, he includes that under complex situations, individuals are easily induced to react through a destructive manner (Parker103). Americans commonly underestimate the influences of a situation; however, Parker thoroughly delineates the consequences behind blind obedience (Parker 104). Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton, authors of “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience” construe the atrocity of blind obedience committed by the United States Military. In March of 1968, crimes of obedience occurred due to an elusive order commanded by a higher ranked officer (Kelman&Hamilton 131).

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He saw that the more personal, or close, the real participant had to be to the fake one, while they were being shocked, affected the obedience as well. He also noticed that if there were two other fake participants teaching that refused to shock their learners that the real participant would not comply. Finally, he tested the experimenter telling the real patient to shock the learner by telephone, instead of actually being there in person, reduced obedience as well (McLead). The Milgram experiment and the Nuremburg trials can relate extensively to explain how the Holocaust happened the way it did.

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She only stood, because if she ran they would shoot…” (4). The guards and the soldiers are symbols for the change of morality. They have the feeling that it is their right to take over other people’s lives such as Magda’s and the prisoners’, who are also damaged physically from the harsh treatment they receive. When looking at Milgram’s experiment, subjects also treat the students as if they were animals: “Of the 40 subjects, 26 obeyed the orders of the experimenter to the end, proceeding to punish the victim until they reached the most potent shock available on the shock generator”(Milgram). Most of the subjects accept the authority even though they knew that it may be dangerous to shock the victims with high voltage.

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Milgram himself concluded how easily ordinary people ‘can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority". (Milgram 1974) As this report has highlighted the research is not without controversy with many questioning to what extent Milgram’s experiment is true to real life and has been criticized for not highlighting further situational variables in determining obedience to authority. Regardless of this, there is no doubt Milgram highlighted a rather troubling phenomenon.

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