The Brutality In Stanley Milgram's The Perils Of Obedience

In “The Perils of Obedience” by Stanley Milgram, he communicates his discoveries of a research experiment in which he performed attempting to provide evidence of the distances individuals determine to go through as a result of becoming obedient to authoritative figures. The experiment consists of three subjects to be tested; the experimenter, the teacher, and the learner. The experimenter gives an explanation of the research experiment being conducted and “the study is concerned with the effects of punishment on learning” (Milgram, 1974). The teachers would recite a sequence of words. The learner would be expected to recall the words connected to each other. However, the learner is also secured tightly to an electric chair during this experiment. …show more content…
His use of language gives a complete detail description demonstrating the procedures of each participant in the experiment of what is expected of them. Stanley Milgram portrays a research experiment by means of two individuals to test the boundaries of obedience which requires to be responsible for agony upon a person. In what way can an individual legitimize the brutality that was exposed in the research experiment merely because they were obeying commands made by authoritative figures? The experiment brings to light the lack of ownership of one 's actions an individual is willing to take when they feel they were simply following orders. Milgram makes a good point when he states that "the experimenter did not threaten the subjects with punishment – such as loss of income, community ostracism, or jail – for failure to obey" (p. 409-10). The concept of the experiments that took place validates that we as individuals need to acknowledge that just because someone, an authority figure, or the law, tells us we need to do something, have a mind of your own to analyze and think with, we should not conform simply because we feel it is what is expected of