Quotes:
- My number one choice is that I wouldn’t go on if I thought he was being harmed. (participant)
2. One of the things that is a prerequisite for carrying out acts that are evil is to shed responsibility from your shoulders and hand it over to the person in charge. (educator)
After learning about Milgram’s experiment, I believe that the experiment, at that time in 1962, is/was a key breakthrough into the thoughts of the human mind when under the influence of an authority. As Milgram explains, this experiment helps to explain the mob mentality of the Nazi soldiers in world war two, but it also can be applied to many other situations where an authority figure has total control over people, and the people follow him/her. On the other hand, as the video shows, some participants were not “brainwashed” into giving shocks at all levels to the person because they sympathized with him, and they didn’t let the authority figure boss them around. Thus, there are some exceptions of when people are not obedient to the authority figure. Furthermore, as an educator/researcher mentioned in the video (quote #2), one of the prerequisites for carrying out acts of evil is to pass the responsibility from the participant’s shoulders in this case, to the person in charge, and in fact, Milgram achieves this prerequisite. We see that when a participant asks if the “student” dies because of the shocks, who is responsible, the person in charge responds with saying the teacher (participant) is not in charge, further influencing him to give the shock at the higher levels. Overall, I believe that Milgarm’s experiment is okay because of the fact that no student was actually harmed, and that the experiment had significant results that would be referenced in psychology for years when talking about people and their obedience to authority.
Your analysis of the experiment and quotes were very interesting. I agree that Milgram experience was very important and was okay to conduct. He didn’t harm anyone, physically. And In return created an entirely new field of study. Now that is a genius. You cover your analysis of authority in depth and was very interesting to read !
I think the experiment showed just how willing we as humans are to follow authority if we are put into a position to do so. While Milgram’s intention was to show the reasoning behind the Nazis I think the actual experiment shows us more then just that. It shows why people are willing to follow authority even when they are being told to harm others. Overall why I do think it wasn’t the most ethically sound experiment I do think the results are important enough to justify the ethical concerns.
I agree, the analysis and the quotes were very interesting!! The Milgram experiment was a very eye-opening experiment to read about. It showed how much authority plays over individuals, even to condone the pain that the feel. It proved the questions he wanted to answer about the Nazis, and definitely opened up a new branch.