Jay Doubleyou: milgram experiment

Sunday 30 November 2014

milgram experiment

Another very controversial study in psychology:

The experimenter (E) orders the teacher (T), the subject of the experiment, to give what the latter believes are painful electric shocks to a learner (L), who is actually an actor and confederate. The subject believes that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual electric shocks, though in reality there were no such punishments. Being separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level.^[1]

Milgram experiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Milgram experiment is the name for a number of controversial experiments. These were about psychology. They were done by a psychologist called Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. Milgram wanted to show that people will follow orders, even if following these orders is against their conscience, which he proved. 65% of participants (acting as "teachers") gave electric shocks of increasing strength to a man they thought was in very bad pain. However, Milgram found that some of the "teachers" became very nervous. For example, they would laugh and be unable to control it.^[1]

Before Milgram did his experiment, he asked fourteen Yale University psychology students what they thought the results would be. On average, the students thought that 1.2% of the "teachers" would give the biggest electric shock of 450 volts.

Milgram wrote about the experiment in his book Obedience to Authority: an experimental view. It was published in 1974. Milgram's experiments have been done again by many psychologists, with very similar results.

The experiment has been mentioned numerous times in pop culture. In the graphic novel V for Vendetta Dr. Surridge said that he has lost faith in humanity because of the experiment. In 2013 there was a conference about it at Nipissing University in Canada.