Stanley Milgram Experiment Summary

Psychologist Stanley Milgram of Yale University is best recognized for his famous studies of obedience within psychology. Milgram formulated an experiment in which he studied the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. Milgram went on to examine justifications for acts of genocide for those who were accused at the World War II criminal trials. Those who were accused, based a defense solely off of obedience. They claimed they were just following orders from their superior leaders. Milgram aimed his experiment to research how far people would go when obeying instruction, even if it involved harming the welfare of another person, physically. Milgram’s mission was to investigate if the obedience justification was …show more content…
The results found that sixty-five percent of participants continued to the highest level of four hundred and fifty volts. While the rest continued up until three hundred volts, before stopping. The results concluded that ordinary people are indeed likely to follow orders that are given by a figure of authority. However, this also depended on how each individual was raised from childhood (Milgram). Phillip Zimbardo’s concern of interested was based off of finding out whether brutality reported among prison guards was from their stigmatized social role, or had to do with the situational environment in which the prison setting was. Phillip Zimbardo’s prison experiment was quite different compared to Milgram’s. However, the aim seemed to be similar. Both experiments intended to examine just how far a person will go, knowing the welfare of another person is at risk, whether it be physical or emotional. Zimbardo’s experiment consisted of a transformed basement at …show more content…
However, when studying deeper into the experiments and comparing them, ethical issues begin to develop. Within Milgram’s experiment, there was deception. The participants believed they were shocking a real person, unaware that they were really not. The welfare of the participants during the Milgram experiment is also of interest within ethics. The participants were introduced to an extremely stressful environment. In Milgram’s defense, he argued that these effects were short term which justified the experiment. The Milgram experiment also gave participants the right to withdrawal at any time. However, they were persuaded not to with commands such as “please continue, you must continue, you have no other choice but to continue”. Is this ethical of the