Milgram experiment on obedience | Behavior | MCAT | Khan Academy

Summary

The Milgram studies, conducted at Yale, explored the obedience to authority among ordinary Americans. Participants, believing they were administering electric shocks to a 'learner' in a learning experiment, were instructed to increase the voltage with each wrong answer. Despite hearing distress, 65% of them shocked up to the maximum level, revealing a profound willingness to inflict pain on command, challenging assumptions about individual morality and resistance to authority.

Takeaways

• 📚 The Milgram studies aimed to explore the obedience of participants to authority figures, even when it conflicted with their personal beliefs and morals.
• 🔍 Milgram used deception to recruit participants for a study under the guise of researching learning and memory, to prevent them from knowing the true nature of the experiment.
• 🎲 Participants were told they were part of a study on the effects of punishment on learning, with roles assigned as 'teacher' and 'learner' through a rigged random selection process.
• 👥 The 'learner' was actually a confederate working with the experimenter, and the 'teacher' was the actual participant, unaware of the deception.
• 🔋 The setup involved a shock box with switches labeled in increasing voltage levels, from 'slight shock' to 'danger XXX', to administer shocks to the learner for incorrect answers.
• 🗣️ The learner's scripted responses escalated from gasps to cries of pain and pleas to quit, culminating in silence after a certain point.
• 🚫 Despite the teacher's protests and visible distress, they were instructed by the experimenter to continue the experiment, emphasizing the authority's influence.
• 🔚 The experiment concluded after four verbal protests from the teacher or after administering the maximum shock three times, revealing the extent of obedience to authority.
• 🤯 Pre-experiment predictions by professionals underestimated the level of obedience, with most expecting a much lower percentage of participants to administer the maximum shock.
• 📊 The actual results showed a shocking 65% compliance rate, even when the learner claimed to have a heart condition, which only slightly reduced compliance to 63%.
• 🌐 Milgram's quote encapsulates the study's findings, highlighting the disturbing willingness of ordinary people to inflict harm on others under the command of authority.

Q & A

What were the Milgram studies designed to investigate?

The Milgram studies were designed to investigate the willingness of participants to obey authority figures, even when instructed to perform actions that conflicted with their personal beliefs and morals.

How did Milgram recruit participants for his study?

Milgram recruited participants by posting ads for a study about learning and memory, aiming to attract average, everyday people without revealing the true nature of the experiment.

What was the role of the 'confederate' in the Milgram study?

The 'confederate' was a person working with the experimenter, secretly part of the study, who always played the role of the 'learner' and was involved in deceiving the actual participant.

What was the setup of the 'shock box' used in the study?

The 'shock box' contained switches labeled with increasing voltages, starting from 15 volts and going up to 450 volts, along with descriptions indicating the severity of the shock, such as 'slight shock' to 'danger XXX'.

How did the experiment manipulate the perception of punishment and learning?

The experiment was framed as studying the effects of punishment on learning, with participants believing that the learner would be shocked for incorrect answers to test if punishment improved learning outcomes.

What was the procedure when the learner made a mistake?

When the learner made a mistake, the teacher was instructed to administer a shock at increasing voltage levels, starting from 15 volts for the first wrong answer and escalating with each subsequent error.

What was the role of the experimenter in the study?

The experimenter's role was to instruct the teacher to continue the experiment, even when the teacher expressed doubts or wanted to stop, by using phrases like 'please continue' and 'you must go on'.

What was the unexpected result of Milgram's study?

The unexpected result was that 65% of participants fully complied with the experimenter's instructions and administered the maximum shock of 450 volts, despite the learner's protests and apparent distress.

How did the presence of a heart condition affect the participants' obedience?

When the learner claimed to have a heart condition, full compliance dropped slightly to 63%, indicating that some participants were affected by the concern for the learner's health but the majority still obeyed authority.

What did Milgram conclude about the nature of authority and obedience?

Milgram concluded that ordinary people can become agents in destructive processes when ordered by an authority figure, and that even when the destructive effects of their actions are clear, relatively few have the resources to resist authority.

What ethical considerations were raised by the Milgram study?

The Milgram study raised ethical considerations regarding deception, informed consent, and the psychological stress inflicted on participants, highlighting the need for careful consideration of ethics in experimental design.