Most people would answer with an adamant "no." However, the Milgram obedience experiment aimed to prove otherwise. During the 1960s, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of obedience experiments that led to some surprising results.
The participants in the most famous variation of the Milgram experiment were 40 men recruited using newspaper ads. In exchange for their participation, each person was paid $4.50. Milgram developed an intimidating shock generator, with shock levels starting at 15 volts and increasing in 15-volt increments all the way up to 450 volts.
Milgram suggested that the subjects were "de-hoaxed" after the experiments. However, Perry's findings revealed that of the 700 or so people who took part in different variations of his studies between 1961 and 1962, very few were truly debriefed.
Perry believes that despite all its ethical issues and the problem of never truly being able to replicate Milgram's procedures, the study has taken on the role of what she calls a "powerful parable." Milgram's work might not hold the answers to what makes people obey or even the degree to which they truly obey.
Participants were 40 males, aged between 20 and 50, whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional, from the New Haven area. They were paid $4.50 for just turning up. At the beginning of the experiment, they were introduced to another participant, who was a confederate of the experimenter (Milgram).
Some participants deceived the experimenter by pretending to continue the experiment. In Experiment 8, an all-female contingent was used; previously, all participants had been men.
How does the woman on the street react to Milgram? She thinks he tortures people and his work is controversial. She does not like him/very critical.
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.
Looking specifically at sex differences in obedience, our results that women and men did not significantly differ in obedience was supported by other research on sex differences in obedience (Blass, 2000).
The learner was an actor working as a cohort of the experimenter. "Teachers" were asked to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to the "learner" when questions were answered incorrectly. In reality, the only electric shocks delivered in the experiment were single 45-volt shock samples given to each teacher.
The Milgram experiment suggested that human beings are susceptible to obeying authority, but it also demonstrated that obedience is not inevitable.
Milgram's experiment demonstrated the power of authority and how someone in a position of authority can influence people to behave unethically and against their wishes.
They were instructed by the experimenter to read word pairs out to the L through a speaker. Then they would say the first word out of the pair followed by four words, one of which is the correct word. The L then has to choose which one is the right word.
The experiment is considered unethical because the people who were the participants were led to believe that they were administering a shock to real people. The individuals were unaware the learners were individuals associated with Milligram.
"The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson: often it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act." - Stanley Milgram, 1974
The average prediction was that around 1% of participants would deliver the maximum shock. 3 In reality, 65% of the participants in Milgram’s study delivered the maximum shocks. 4
So why does Milgram's experiment maintain such a powerful hold on our imaginations, even decades after the fact? Perry believes that despite all its ethical issues and the problem of never truly being able to replicate Milgram's procedures, the study has taken on the role of what she calls a "powerful parable."
If an authority figure ordered you to deliver a 400-volt electrical shock to another person, would you follow orders? Most people would answer with an adamant "no." However, the Milgram obedience experiment aimed to prove otherwise.
In exchange for their participation, each person was paid $4.50. 1
When other people refused to go along with the experimenter's orders, 36 out of 40 participants refused to deliver the maximum shocks. 6
Participants were also carefully screened to eliminate those who might experience adverse reactions to the experiment.