Behavioural Study of Obedience - Stanley Milgram

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Behavioural Study of Obedience

Stanley Milgram

1963

Many atrocities had been committed in the Second World War. Many culprits were put on trial for their lives in Nuremberg, at the end of the war. The chief defence was that they were only following orders from somebody above. This argument, followed to it's extreme would absolve every person involved in an atrocity, leaving only Hitler as the only person who could be found guilty (as he took orders from no one)! Naturally, with feelings running high at the end of the war, this defence was rejected outright, and many defendants were found guilty and hanged. Popular opinion for some time after the end of the Second World War was that there was something in the German character that made them particularly cruel. This is a dispositional view. People are genetically determined to act in a certain fashion, or are brought up to act in a certain fashion.

Milgram questioned this dispositional view of the German character. He felt that the situation that many people had found themselves in had led to their cruel behaviour. It would follow from this, that most people, regardless of nationality, would perform cruel acts upon another, under certain situations. The defence for many of the war criminals had been they had been following orders. Milgram, reasoned that people could commit atrocities when they are given orders by somebody in authority.

Details of Experiment

Milgram tested his hypothesis by using a laboratory experiment. The subjects were chosen from volunteers who had responded to a newspaper article.

This means the sample was self-selecting. We must question whether or not Milgram had a representative sample, by using this study. Milgram chose to study only men, but from a variety of backgrounds and different ages. You might say that by using men this produced a sample that was biased, or did not reflect the general population. Men are thought to be more aggressive than women, so it would make sense to begin a series of experiments with them. Many of the war criminals had been men, so Milgram's sample was representative of the target population. Milgram did in a later experiment use only women, and achieved similar results to those produced by the men.

The men were paid to participate in the experiment. Again you would be misguided to say that the subjects were only obeying in order to receive the payment. Milgram's experimenter (Milgram had no direct contact with the subjects) made it quite clear that they were paid the money just for appearing at the laboratory, and they were free to leave at anytime without forfeiting the money. Having said this though, the experimenter did not remind the subjects of their right to leave subsequent to this initial assurance. Later in the experiment the subjects were to be told by the experimenter the exact opposite "You have no choice, you must go on". This conflicts with ethical guidelines; subjects have the right to withdraw from any experiment without censure at anytime.

The experiment was conducted at Yale University. Again we should question this as a prestigious setting could add to the authority of the experimenter, and the willingness for the subject to obey. Milgram was aware of this possibility, and in a subsequent variation of his experiment, located in a shabby downtown office, found that the level of obedience was slightly less than the level reported in this original experiment.

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A stern looking male experimenter was used (a secondary school teacher). A mild mannered man played the part of the victim. Milgram chose a likeable inoffensive character to play the part of the victim, probably so there could be no apparent motive to harm him. We should question this, and ask whether appearing mild-mannered might encourage bullying behaviour. Perhaps Milgram should have chosen a victim who appeared to be able to take care of himself, yet appear friendly at the same time (a likeable hulk!).

You can not just say to a subject that you are going to test ...

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Summary The writer has gone into a great deal of detail about the experiment that Milgram carried out. There is very little to change in this essay since most of the comments made are positive ones. This work covers just about everything involved with Milgram's study and is an accurate account of the way in which the experiment was carried out. The writer has also given a thorough critique of Milgram's experiment. It is a really good piece of writing and worthy of full marks. Score 5*