Milgram Experiment

In the scholarly article, “ Behavioral Study of Obedience” written and conducted by Stanley Miller, an experiment was performed to see if a group of amenable participants, named subjects, were willing to provide electrical shocks to another person, the experiment tested how far down the severity of shocks the subject would administer to the victim. The question is would being in the position of control and having a feeling as if the subject cannot leave, makes shocking another person justifiable? To begin the experiment, a total of 40 male subjects all ranging within age, education levels, and different races participated in what they thought was a “Study of memory and learning at Yale University” (Milgram, 2). To make the experiment as …show more content…
He was portrayed as a serious inhospitable experimenter. The victim was portrayed “By a 47-year-old accountant trained for the role” (Milgram 3). These characteristics allowed for the subjects to have a high esteem for the experimenter as an authority figure. The victim also depicts as a likable and appealing man to the subjects. The experiment sincerely begins when the subject and the victim draw slips from a hat in order to decide who would be the teacher and the learner. The drawing was rigged in order for the subjects to always be teachers and the victim would always be the learner. After the drawing the leaner and teacher were taking to the room where the learner would be attached to the electrical chair. In order for the experiment to appear as realistic as possible, the teachers received a small shock that would be potentially given to the …show more content…
If the learner does not answer the question correctly, than a shock is given. Each incorrect answer lead to an increase of each shock voltage, the subject had to be fully aware of the current shock voltage and is also aware of the increasing shock voltage. When the subject reaches the 300-shock voltage, "The learner pounds on the wall of the room" (Milgram, 4). This would cause the teacher to be apprehensive about continuing the experiment. During different times in the experiment, the teachers turn to the experimenter for guidance and hesitate if they should continue the experiment. The experimenter is given a set of "prods" to say to the subjects in order to try to have the subject continue the experiment, "Please continue. ", "The experiment requires you to continue. ", "It is absolutely essential that you continue.” and "You have no other choice you must go on." (Milgram, 4). The set of probs is used after the first one does not work, if after the fourth prob the teacher wishes to not continue with the experiment than the experiment is