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Stanley Milgram's Obedience Experiment

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Stanley Milgram's obedience experiment revealed how ordinary people could be driven to inflict pain under authoritative orders. The study's variations showed that factors like location and authority presence significantly influenced obedience levels. These experiments have profound implications for our comprehension of human behavior and the ethical conduct of psychological research.

The Origins of Milgram's Obedience Experiment

Stanley Milgram's seminal obedience experiment originated from his quest to understand the psychological processes that could lead ordinary individuals to participate in inhumane acts, as seen during the Holocaust. Milgram challenged the notion that such behaviors were unique to a particular culture or inherent to a specific group of people, such as Germans under the Nazi regime. Instead, he proposed that the propensity to obey authoritative commands could compel individuals to act contrary to their ethical beliefs.
Austere clinical laboratory with vintage metal desk, antique microphone, chair with leather cushion and restraint chair with straps.

Experimental Design and Methodology

The Milgram experiment was ingeniously designed to measure the extent to which individuals would obey an authority figure when instructed to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Volunteers, responding to a newspaper ad, were cast in the role of 'teacher' and were directed to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to a 'learner' for each incorrect response in a learning task. The shocks were simulated, starting at 15 volts and potentially escalating to a lethal 450 volts. The 'learner' was an actor, and the true measure was not the learner's response but the teacher's compliance with the authority's directives.

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00

Milgram argued that the tendency to follow ______ orders might lead people to act against their own ______ principles, challenging the idea that such actions were specific to ______ or a certain group like the Nazis.

authoritative

ethical

a particular culture

01

Milgram experiment initial shock level

15 volts - starting level for simulated shocks in Milgram's study.

02

Milgram experiment maximum shock level

450 volts - potential maximum, portrayed as lethal in the study.

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