Analysis Of Stanley Milgram's Obedience Study

Ethics has always been a contentious topic among scholars. The idea of doing what is right in all situations is not foreign to people, yet humanity still misses the mark. One disciple that it is crucial to consistently be ethical is research. Investigators must use caution and be diligent when conducting research since no harm should be done to the participants. However, research still misses the mark. One example of this is Stanley Milgram’s obedience study (1963). This study is considered so unethical that it is one that led to the establishment of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the Belmont Report. According to the IRB, Milgram’s obedience study, albeit one that contributed immensely to academia, is considered unethical because …show more content…
He was specifically interested in what led millions of Nazi commanders to follow the orders of Adolf Hitler and their leader and kill millions of Jewish civilians. Milgram was seeking to answer the following questions; What causes people to obey orders and commit horrendous crimes? Why do people simply follow orders when they know what they are doing is unethical?
Who was Involved The obedience study was conducted in an interesting fashion. Milgram sought to understand if normal people would shock others when they were told to do so. There were 2 main roles in the experiment: the teacher and the learner. The teacher is the one who would ask basic questions to the learner and the learner would have to guess the correct answer. If they guessed wrong, the teacher would administer the next highest shock to the learner. If they guessed right, there would be no shock …show more content…
The participants were deceived because they believed they were shocking actual humans, even though the sounds of the learners screaming in pain were prerecorded. Milgram argues that deceiving participants is sometimes necessary since it reveals hidden truths (McLeod, 2007). Furthermore, this study is also unethical because the participants were all under extreme distress. The participants believed they were hurting or even killing another individual and thus were put into an anguishing state. This emotional distress caused the participants to question the ethics of the study. This study is also unethical because the participants could not withdraw themselves while the experiment was occurring. Many of them heard the screams of the learners and demanded that the experiment be concluded. However, the experimenter consistently told them to continue on. These three aspects illustrate the reasons why Milgram’s obedience study is