The Milgram Experiment: the danger of obedience to authority

Would you be capable of committing a crime? The Milgram experiment questions your morality.

Can any human being commit the most heinous crimes against humanity just out of obedience to authority? It is a question that many scholars have asked themselves throughout the 20th century, especially after witnessing massive crimes against humanity such as the extermination camps of the Third Reich or wars between economic powers. These were borderline circumstances in which violence and death were perceived with indifference by a significant part of the population.

In fact, a good number of researchers have gone a step further and have tried to find the psychological keys that explain why, under certain circumstances, human beings are capable of transgressing our moral values.

Stanley Milgram: an American psychologist

Stanley Milgram was a psychologist at Yale University who in 1961 conducted a series of experiments whose purpose was to measure the willingness of a participant to obey the orders of an authority, even when these orders might conflict with his value system and conscience.

To what extent are we fully aware of the consequences of our actions when we make a hard decision to obey authority? What complex mechanisms are involved in obeying acts that go against our ethics?

The preparation of the Milgram experiment

Milgram recruited a total of 40 participants by mail and by newspaper advertisement in which they were invited to take part in an experiment on "memory and learning" and for the simple fact of participating they would be paid a sum of four dollars (equivalent to about 28 dollars today), assuring them that they would keep the payment "regardless of what happens after their arrival".

They were told that the experiment required three people: the researcher (who wore a white coat and served as the authority), the teacher and the student. The volunteers were always assigned the role of the teacher by a fake lottery, while the role of the student would always be assigned to a Milgram accomplice. Both teacher and student would be assigned to different but joint rooms, the teacher always observed with the student (who in reality was always the accomplice) was tied to a chair to "avoid involuntary movements" and electrodes were placed on him, while the teacher was assigned to the other room in front of an electric shock generator with thirty switches that regulated the intensity of the shock in 15 volt increments, ranging from 15 to 450 volts and which, according to the researcher, would provide the indicated shock to the student.

Milgram also s**** made sure to place labels indicating the intensity of the shock (moderate, strong, danger: severe shock and XXX). The reality was that such a generator was a fake, as it did not provide any shock to the learner and only produced sound when the switches were pressed.

The mechanics of the experiment

The recruited subject or teacher was instructed to teach word pairs to the trainee and that, should he make any mistakes, the pupil was to be punished by applying an electric shock, which would be 15 volts more powerful after each error..

Evidently, the learner never received shocks. However, to make the situation more realistic for the participant, after pressing the switch, a pre-recorded audio was activated with moans and screams that increased and became more plaintive with each switch. If the teacher refused or called the researcher (who was close to him in the same room) he responded with a predefined and somewhat persuasive answer: "please continue", "please continue", "the experiment needs you to continue", "it is absolutely essential that you continue", "you have no choice, you must continue". And in case the subject asked who was responsible if something happened to the student, the experimenter simply answered that he was responsible.

Results

During most of the experiment many subjects showed signs of tension and distress when they heard the shrieks in the next room which were apparently provoked by the electric shocks. Three subjects had "long, uncontrollable seizures" and while most subjects were uncomfortable doing so, all forty subjects complied up to 300 volts while 25 of the 40 subjects continued shocking up to the maximum level of 450 volts.

This reveals that 65% of the subjects went all the way, even when in some recordings the subject complained of having Heart problems.. The experiment was terminated by the experimenter after three 450 volt shocks.

Conclusions drawn by Stanley Milgram

The conclusions of the experiment reached by Milgram can be summarized in the following points:

A) When the subject obeys the dictates of authority, his conscience ceases to function and an abdication of responsibility occurs.

B) Subjects are more obedient the less they have been in contact with the victim and the farther they are physically away from the victim.

C) Subjects with an authoritarian personality are more obedient than non-authoritarian ones (thus classified, after an evaluation of fascist tendencies).

D) The greater the proximity to authority, the greater the obedience.

E) The more academic training, the less intimidation produced by authority, so there is a decrease in obedience.

F) People who have received military-type instruction or severe discipline are more likely to obey.

G) Young men and women obey equally.

H) The subject always tends to justify his inexplicable acts.

Criminological relevance of the experiment

After World War II, subsequent trials of war criminals (including Adolf Eichmann) were held for the Jewish Holocaust. The defense of Eichmann and the Germans when testifying at trial for crimes against humanity was that they were simply carrying out and following orders.Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were simply following orders from Hitler and Himmler?

Obedience to authority, a principle that would explain institutionalized violence

The principle of obedience to authority has been defended in our civilizations as one of the pillars on which society is based. On a general level, it is obedience to authority that allows the protection of the subject, however, exacerbated obedience can turn out to be a double-edged sword when the well-worn discourse of "I was only obeying orders" exempts from responsibility and disguises sadistic impulses as duty.

Prior to the experiment, some experts hypothesized that only 1% to 3% of the individuals would flip the 450-volt switch (and that these subjects would also experience some pathology, psychopathy or sadistic impulses), However, it was ruled out that any of the volunteers had any pathology, psychopathy or sadistic impulses.However, it was ruled out that any of the volunteers had any pathology, and aggressiveness was ruled out as a motivation after a series of tests on the volunteers. In view of the data, Milgram postulated two theories to try to explain the phenomena.

First theory: group conformity

The first based on the work of conformity of Aschproposes that a subject who has neither the ability nor the knowledge to make decisions (particularly in the face of a crisis) will transfer decisions to the group..

Second theory: the reification

The second, more widely accepted theory is known as reification. reificationand refers to the fact that the essence of obedience consists in the fact that the person perceives himself only as an instrument for the realization of the other person's desires, and therefore does not consider himself for the fulfillment of the other person's desires and therefore does not consider him or herself responsible for his or her actions. Thus, once this "transformation" of self-perception has occurred, all the essential characteristics of obedience occur.

An experiment that marked a before and after in social psychology.

Milgram's experiment represents one of the experiments in social psychology of greatest interest to criminology in terms of demonstrate the fragility of human values in the face of blind obedience to authority..

Their results showed that ordinary people, faced with the order of a figure with just a little authority, are capable of acting with cruelty. In this way criminology has been able to understand how some criminals who have committed savage genocides and terrorist attacks have developed a very high level of obedience to what they consider authority.