What was milgram obedience study

When the volt shock was administered, the learner would cry out in pain and ask to leave the study. He would then continue crying out with each shock until the volt level, at which point he would stop responding. During this process, whenever participants expressed hesitation about continuing with the study, the experimenter would urge them to go on with increasingly firm instructions, culminating in the statement, "You have no other choice, you must go on.

This mindset is likely to have affected their behavior in the study. Milgram and other researchers conducted numerous versions of the experiment over time.

For example, when participants were in closer proximity to the learner e. Another version of the study brought three "teachers" into the experiment room at once. One was a real participant, and the other two were actors hired by the research team.

During the experiment, the two non-participant teachers would quit as the level of shocks began to increase. In yet another version of the study, two experimenters were present, and during the experiment, they would begin arguing with one another about whether it was right to continue the study. In this version, none of the participants gave the learner the volt shock.

Researchers have sought to replicate Milgram's original study with additional safeguards in place to protect participants. Additionally, participants were screened by a clinical psychologist before the experiment began, and those found to be at risk of a negative reaction to the study were deemed ineligible to participate. His research has been used to explain atrocities such as the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, though these applications are by no means widely accepted or agreed upon.

In fact, as sociologist Matthew Hollander writes, we may be able to learn from the participants who disobeyed, as their strategies may enable us to respond more effectively to an unethical situation. The Milgram experiment suggested that human beings are susceptible to obeying authority, but it also demonstrated that obedience is not inevitable. In fact, the replication suggests a darker picture. One of optimistic findings of the original Milgram experiment was his condition 7, in which there were three teachers, two of whom both confederates of the experimenter defied the experimenter.

Given this social support, most subjects refused to continue to administer shocks, suggesting that social solidarity serves as a kind of a defense against destructive obedience to authority. Unfortunately, this did not occur in the French replication, in which the production assistant protested about the immorality of the procedure with virtually no effect on levels of obedience.

And unfortunately, not in the Burger study either: Burger found that the intervention of an accomplice who refused to continue had no effect on the levels of obedience. A dark thought for our dark times. His primary research is in the history and philosophy of social and psychological science. Popular on Behavioral Scientist. By Anupriya Kukreja. By Eric Johnson. By Evan Nesterak. By Steven Pinker.

View Most Popular. Some obedient participants gave up responsibility for their actions, blaming the experimenter. Others had transferred the blame to the learner: "He was so stupid and stubborn he deserved to be shocked. Obeyed but blamed themselves.

Others felt badly about what they had done and were quite harsh on themselves. Members of this group would, perhaps, be more likely to challenge authority if confronted with a similar situation in the future. Finally, rebellious subjects questioned the authority of the experimenter and argued there was a greater ethical imperative calling for the protection of the learner over the needs of the experimenter.

Some of these individuals felt they were accountable to a higher authority. Why were those who challenged authority in the minority? So entrenched is obedience it may void personal codes of conduct. Milgram, S. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper and Row. Social Forces in Obedience and Rebellion.

Social Psychology: The Second Edition. New York: The Free Press. Printing this electronic Web page is permitted for personal, non-commercial use as long as the author and the University of California are credited. What he provided instead was a difficult and deeply uncomfortable set of questions—and his research, flawed as it is, endures not because it clarifies the causes of human atrocities, but because it confuses more than it answers.

People have tried to knock it down, and it always comes up standing. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe.