Milgram proposed that people operate on two levels. First, they operate as autonomous individuals, where they act according to their own values and beliefs. Second, they act on an agentic level where they see themselves as agents, acting on behalf of somebody else and not responsible for their own actions. He asserted that it is possible to move from an autonomous state into an agentic state; this is referred to as an agentic shift (Milgram, 1963). A consequence of this shift is that an individual no longer feels responsible for their actions. Instead, they can blame those in higher authority. To better understand the behavior of the participants in Milgram’s experiment, it is important to explore the context of their actions. One such way
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This age range corresponds to the second and third levels of Kohlberg’s social orientation. To begin, the second level of moral thinking is what is generally found in society, and is referred to as "conventional." The first stage of this level is characterized by an attitude which seeks to do what will gain the approval of others. The second stage is oriented to abiding by the law and responding to the obligations of duty. (Berger, 2014, p. 310). Milgram’s results demonstrated a 65 percent compliance rate, suggesting that a similar percentage of his experiment’s participants identify with Kohlberg’s second level of social …show more content…
Variations of his experiment have been conducted over many years and in other settings with similar findings. The effect of authority on obedience is striking. People obey either out of fear or out of a desire to appear cooperative, even when acting against their own better judgment and desires. The vast majority of people will obey authority even when it overrides their own moral judgement. Their feelings of duty and personal emotion are separated, and responsibility shifts in the mind of the subordinate to that of the authority figure. The impact of Milgram’s research demonstrates that ordinary people possess the ability to conduct destructive
This age range corresponds to the second and third levels of Kohlberg’s social orientation. To begin, the second level of moral thinking is what is generally found in society, and is referred to as "conventional." The first stage of this level is characterized by an attitude which seeks to do what will gain the approval of others. The second stage is oriented to abiding by the law and responding to the obligations of duty. (Berger, 2014, p. 310). Milgram’s results demonstrated a 65 percent compliance rate, suggesting that a similar percentage of his experiment’s participants identify with Kohlberg’s second level of social …show more content…
Variations of his experiment have been conducted over many years and in other settings with similar findings. The effect of authority on obedience is striking. People obey either out of fear or out of a desire to appear cooperative, even when acting against their own better judgment and desires. The vast majority of people will obey authority even when it overrides their own moral judgement. Their feelings of duty and personal emotion are separated, and responsibility shifts in the mind of the subordinate to that of the authority figure. The impact of Milgram’s research demonstrates that ordinary people possess the ability to conduct destructive