Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority: Then and Now
Austin Groshens
PSYC C101
December 3, 2017
Cerro Coso Community College Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority: Then and Now Stanley Milgram’s 1963 experiment on obedience tested an individual’s wiliness to follow the instructions of authority figures. Milgram wanted to determine if people would harm others, even giving them a shock at the level as to cause death, on the orders of another. The results showed people, when commanded by an authority figure, would carry out the order. This paper will exam the original experiment, history that led to the experiment, and the controversy that arose following the experiment. It will also examine if given the same situation today, would the same results be obtained.
In 1961, as an assistant Yale psychologist, Stanley Milgram developed and conducted a groundbreaking study on obedience. His premise was to discover to what level a person would follow orders when the end result would produce harm on another. Milgram wanted to know how the common German soldier and officers, who participated in the horrors of the Holocaust, could use a “they just followed orders” excuse as their …show more content…
(2088). Psychologist, 748. Those that did not stop at this level had a 79% chance of continuing to the end of the experiment (Burger). In 2007, Jerry Burger of Santa Clara University, California, received permission to duplicate the Milgram experiment with certain restrictions. Burger chose to use virtual reality as a way to replicate the situation. Using the new data from Packer, a stopping point of 150 volts was selected. Results showed that 70%, only slight lower than the original results were willing to continue to shock the subject at levels higher than 150 volts.
Austin Groshens
PSYC C101
December 3, 2017
Cerro Coso Community College Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority: Then and Now Stanley Milgram’s 1963 experiment on obedience tested an individual’s wiliness to follow the instructions of authority figures. Milgram wanted to determine if people would harm others, even giving them a shock at the level as to cause death, on the orders of another. The results showed people, when commanded by an authority figure, would carry out the order. This paper will exam the original experiment, history that led to the experiment, and the controversy that arose following the experiment. It will also examine if given the same situation today, would the same results be obtained.
In 1961, as an assistant Yale psychologist, Stanley Milgram developed and conducted a groundbreaking study on obedience. His premise was to discover to what level a person would follow orders when the end result would produce harm on another. Milgram wanted to know how the common German soldier and officers, who participated in the horrors of the Holocaust, could use a “they just followed orders” excuse as their …show more content…
(2088). Psychologist, 748. Those that did not stop at this level had a 79% chance of continuing to the end of the experiment (Burger). In 2007, Jerry Burger of Santa Clara University, California, received permission to duplicate the Milgram experiment with certain restrictions. Burger chose to use virtual reality as a way to replicate the situation. Using the new data from Packer, a stopping point of 150 volts was selected. Results showed that 70%, only slight lower than the original results were willing to continue to shock the subject at levels higher than 150 volts.