The Milgram Experiment

Many experiments have been performed throughout the years. One of the most shocking would have to be the Milgram experiment performed by Stanley Milgram. The experiment was to test a person’s “Obedience to Authority” by seeing if he or she would cause harm to another just because they were told. The idea of obedience has been instilled in people since the time of Cain and Able, with regard to doing as God says. There are multiple reasons for Dr. Milgram to perform this experiment, however, some did not accept this and still believed it to be a violation of the subjects human rights. The results showed that even though people believed they would not cause extreme harm to another, they would if put in the position where they were pressured to by an authoritative person. This resulted in chaos in the psychological community, and concluded in major changes to what is moral, and ethical, under the guidelines provided by APA. However, his results may be used to consider what happened during World War II, along with other U.S. wars, as well as what happened during the Watergate scandal.

This experiment was performed many times. It began with Dr. Milgram placing an ad in a New Haven newspaper. The advertisement asked for people between the ages of 20 and 50, those who were not currently attending school, and from all types of professions. It also claimed the experiment would last one hour, and that it was to study memory. Those who participated in the experiment would receive four dollars for participating, and fifty cents for carfare, for the one hour of participation. From this ad, he did not get enough of a response so Dr. Milgram took names from a phone directory, and send fliers in the mail. The experiment itself was performed in the Interaction Laboratory of Yale University. It consisted of two people who were aware of what was happening, one called the “experimenter,” the person in charge of managing the experiment, and another called, “the victim.” A third, was one other person involved with the experiment called the “naïve subject” who was the one being tested in this experiment. The experiment called for two different perspectives, which were what the “naïve subject” believed to be happening, and what was really happening. The experiment was set up so that according to the “naïve subject,” “the victim” was told to memorize a list of word pairs such as:

blue box

nice day

wild duck etc.

then in the testing sequence he [the naïve subject] would read: blue: sky ink box lamp (Obedience 18).

If “the victim” was able to select the correct corresponding word, the “naïve subject” continued by saying the next word. However, if “the victim” did not answer correctly, or took too long in answering, the “naïve subject” would have to