“Milgram was very much aware that obedience is a necessary ingredient for society to function, but he focused on the darker side of obedience.” 5:53~ Professor
“You don’t ask what people would do given this hypothetical situation you put them in the situation.” 7:53~ Former subject
Although I did study this experiment back in high school, it’s definitely valuable to revisit it given what we’ve learned and studied in this class. I think what makes this experiment so interesting and divisive is how the results were a clear indication that everyday people will blindly follow authority given a certain set of circumstances. In this case the subjects were told that they must continue and in some cases certain subjects were told that they would have no responsibility if the victim were harmed. In essence, Milgram showed how the Nazis could carry out such atrocious acts of harm. Although those participating in the experiment were not committing genocide, they were on a smaller scale knowingly harming the life of another person, a fact that can’t be ignored. If the average person saw this experiment today, there’s no doubt they would say I wouldn’t go to the full voltage, but that’s why I love this experiment. In actuality, I bet the results of the experiment if carried out today, as explained by the student at the end of the video, would be roughly the same. We never truly know how we would react to a situation unless we are put it in. This is why I love this experiment. Although it is highly unethical, Milgram knows that people react differently in reality then they do on paper, and this experiment proves it. While it is important for experiments to be ethical you can’t help but wonder what else we could learn about human nature if ethics were not an issue.
Matthew Epstein