The Milgram Experiment

[Guest jediihaf]

I know this is waaaaaay off topic, but I'm wondering what you all think about this infamous experiment. First a little background on the experiment and then I'll link both parts.

This is the central section of "Obedience", the documentary made of Stanley Milgram's psychology experiments at Yale University in the early 1960s.

For anyone who doesn't know, the Milgram experiment was a study of the extent to which humans will act against their conscience when placed under pressure from an authority figure. The man sat in the chair is the subject - he has just been introduced to another "volunteer" (who is in fact part of the experiment team, posing as a member of the public) and told that this is a study into how the threat of punishment affects the learning process. The other "volunteer" is sitting behind the screen, supposedly responding through a system of buzzers and lights to a simple memory game in which he has to remember word pairings. The actual subject - the man we see - is told to punish wrong answers with electric shocks of increasing intensity from the "shock generator" in front of him, the higher numbers of which are clearly labelled "danger". In fact, no one is being shocked, and the screams are tape recorded.

Milgram's initial intention was to demonstrate how thousands of non-psychopathic Germans were able to carry out acts of unthinkable brutality during WWII, but the lessons of the experiment are more universal. It's a perfect illustration of the banality of evil.

Worth putting aside twenty minutes to watch both parts in one go - it's pretty grim, but it's gripping.

More:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_...

Part 1: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e02xGc-K0c[/ame]

Part 2: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7OPRLdeZQA&mode=related&search=[/ame]

[Guest crytes]

A important peice of information would be what their incentive for being involved in said expeiriment. As they say every man has their price. For some it's lower for some it's higher.

Crytes

[Marswolf]

I actually was a participant (subject) in an experiment like this in the late 60s at UT. All students had to participate. I never figured out why I, as an engineering student, had to do this except they didn't have to pay subjects this way. This irritated me....

Having a modicum of intelligence, I knew what they were doing and decided to skew the results by pretty much frying the person "taking the test" at every opportunity. Occasionally, I'd switch to just a mild "shock" when I'd been giving a terribly painful one just to confuse them. They are probably still trying to figure out whether they should call the authorities to have me locked up.

[Guest jediihaf]

The actually number that went all the way to 450 volts in the "test" was 65%. They say today with the much higher amount of propaganda that the public is subject to would probably make the numbers up into the high 80s or low 90s today. This is the experiment I always think of when people begin to talk about having the military perform LEO type duties.