The Milgram Effect

The Milgram Experiments

Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments on the topic of authoritarian effects on the actions of the general populous. His experiments give an insight into why many people react a certain way to authoritarian influences, such as, military officers (Nazi/Holocaust), physicians, and even news media sources perceived to be an authority on a given topic. Some important data is highlighted, and there is a commentary on how these experiments apply to us today. An explanation of his experiment is as follows.



The Experiment

Subjects were recruited for the Yale study through newspaper ads and direct mail. The experiments occurred in two rooms in the basement of Linsly-Chittenden Hall on the university's Old Campus. The participants were from all educational backgrounds, ranging from an elementary school dropout to participants with doctoral degrees.

The participant and a confederate of the experimenter, who was an actor pretending to be another participant, were told by the experimenter that they would be participating in an experiment to test the effects of punishment on learning.

A slip of paper was then given to the participant and another to the confederate. The participant was led to believe that one of the slips said "learner" and the other said "teacher," and that the participants had been given the slips randomly. In fact, both slips said "teacher," but the actor claimed to have the slip that read "learner," thus guaranteeing that the participant was always the "teacher." At this point, the "teacher" and "learner" were separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other. In one version of the experiment, the confederate was sure to mention to the participant that he had a heart condition.

The "teacher" was given a 45-volt electric shock from the electro-shock generator as a sample of the shock that the "learner" would supposedly receive during the experiment. The "teacher" was then given a list of word pairs which he was to teach the learner. The teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner. The teacher would then read the first word of each pair and read 4 possible answers. The learner would press a button to indicate his response. If the answer was incorrect, the learner would receive a shock, with the voltage increasing with each wrong answer. If correct, the teacher would read the next word pair.

The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After the confederate was separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level. After a number of voltage level increases, the actor started to bang on the wall that separated him from the subject. After several times banging on the wall and complaining about his heart condition, the learner gave no further responses to questions and no further complaints.

At this point, many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner. Some test subjects paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment. Most subjects continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible. A few subjects began to laugh nervously or exhibit other signs of extreme stress once they heard the screams of pain coming from the learner.

If at any time the subject indicated his desire to halt the experiment, he was given a succession of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this order:

1. Please continue.
2. The experiment requires you to continue, please go on.
3. It is essential that you continue.
4. You have no choice, you must continue.

If the subject still wished to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, it was halted after the subject had given the maximum 450-volt shock three times in succession.



Experiment Layout



The experimenter (E) orders the participant (S) to give what the participant believes are painful electric shocks to another participant (A), who is actually an actor. Many participants continued to give shocks despite pleas for mercy from the actor (A), as long as the experimenter (E) kept on ordering them to do so.



Before You Continue…





The Result

Before the experiment was conducted Milgram polled fellow psychologists as to what the results would be. They unanimously believed that only a sadistic few 0.1 percent would be prepared to give the maximum voltage.

In Milgram's first set of experiments, 67.5 percent (27 out of 40) of experimental participants administered the experiment's final 450-volt shock, though many were quite uncomfortable in doing so; everyone paused at some point and questioned the experiment, some even saying they would return the check for the money they were paid. No participant steadfastly refused to give further shocks before the 300-volt level. Variants of the experiment were later performed by Milgram himself and other psychologists around the world with similar results. Apart from confirming the original results the variations have tested variables in the experimental setup.



An Interesting Occurrence

There is a little-known coda to the experiment, reported by Philip Zimbardo. None of the participants who refused to administer the final shocks insisted that the experiment itself be terminated, nor left the room to check that the victim was well without asking for permission to leave, according to Milgram's notes and recollections when he was asked on this point by Zimbardo.



Quotes

"With numbing regularity good people were seen to knuckle under the demands of authority and perform actions that were callous and severe. Men who are in everyday life responsible and decent were seduced by the trappings of authority, by the control of their perceptions, and by the uncritical acceptance of the experimenter's definition of the situation, into performing harsh acts. .A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority." (Stanley Milgram 1965)

"The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous import, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' [participants'] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects' [participants'] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation." (Stanley Milgram 1974)

"While I was a subject in 1964, though I believed that I was hurting someone, I was totally unaware of why I was doing so. Few people ever realize when they are acting according to their own beliefs and when they are meekly submitting to authority. (Anonymous participant 1964)



What does it mean?

I am often amazed that so many people follow a person blindly. A prime example is G.W. Bush. Many people support him blindly; conversely, many people support his detractors blindly. I have always had difficulty understanding how anyone could support the idea that the war in Iraq is over oil. I had difficulty with this because; this would be a factually unsound position to take on the war in Iraq. With a small amount of research, economic understanding, and logic; I can't comprehend how this view could even be considered. Having now come to a basic understanding of the Milgram Effect, if you will allow me to coin the phrase, I think I can see where the flimsiest of arguments can take hold and spread amongst the general populous.

We often turn to the television for information regarding current events. We also often accept anything reported to be truth as we expect the news media to be required to be honest. It is not. The only requirements set upon the news media are ratings and not permitting sufficient insight, of the public, into an errant story. Simply put, keep people watching, and don't get caught in a lie you can't spin your way out of. Many unsuspecting people take the story from CNN, MSNBC, or FOX as truth. Sadly, this is often not the case. When the media is viewed as nearly infallible it becomes an authority. Consider how many people bought bottled water, duct tape, and flashlights for Y2K. We often accept the word of the media as truth and the result is a very powerful authority. An authority who can rapidly sway public opinion for an administration in office either direction. Sadly, the result is that many people think themselves the "teacher" based on incomplete and inaccurate information. They then expound these fallacies upon anyone who thinks in opposition to the authority of the media. This shock is far more than 450 volts; this shock could one day kill us all. Consider what media propaganda did in Nazi Germany. Do we want to follow that path? I think not.



Sources

Milgram Experiment data and quotes were obtained from the following sources.

Wikipedia.org

StanleyMilgram.com

SCU.edu (Santa Clara University)

Stanley Milgram (August 15, 1933 - December 20, 1984) was a psychologist at Yale University, Harvard University and the City University of New York.