MILGRAM'S EXPERIMENT

The Milgram Experiment and Obedience

The Milgram Experiment and Obedience

Introduction

Stanley Milgram was a social psychologist who believed that people obeyed in two cases only; when they fear someone or when they want to show that they are cooperative. For finding more detailed results about the obedience of people, he decided to conduct an experiment that would measure the level of obedience in people. His experiment became very controversial because it used power and risked the life of people. He used electrical shocks to measure the level of obedience in people (Brown, 1986). He started his experiment soon after the trials of the criminal Adolph Eichmann of the World War II.

The Experiment

For the purpose of conducting his experiment, Milgram selected 40 people from different walks of life and paid each of them $4.5 for participating in this experiment. He developed a shock generator in which the shock levels started from 30 volts and went up till 450 volts. The shock kept increasing by 15 volts as the experiment progressed. The shock levels were named as slight shock, moderate shock, severe shock and the final two stages were simply labeled 'XXX.'

Every participant assumed the role of a teacher who had to ask questions from the students and deliver shock to them if they did not answer correctly (Milgram, 1974). As the experiment progresses, the students pleaded to free them. At the shock level of 300 volts, the students did not answer anything and remained silent. His silence was treated as an incorrect, which is why he was delivered an even higher level of shock. The participants of the experiment who had assumed the role of teachers could not see the condition of the students and kept on asking the experimenter, whether they should continue the experiment or not because the life ...