The Milgram Experiment: The Danger Of Obedience To Authority
Can any human being commit the most heinous crimes against humanity just out of obedience to authority? It is a question that many academics 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. Limit circumstances in which violence and death were perceived with indifference by a significant part of the population.
In fact, there have been a good handful of researchers who have gone a step further and have tried to find the psychological keys that explain why, in certain circumstances, human beings are capable of transgressing our moral values.
Stanley Milgram was a psychologist at Yale University who carried out a series of experiments in 1961 whose purpose was to measure a participant’s willingness to obey the orders of an authority, even when these orders could cause a conflict with their value system. and his conscience.
To what extent are we fully aware of the consequences of our actions when we make a tough decision to obey authority? What complex mechanisms intervene in obedience to acts that go against our ethics?
The preparation of the Milgram experiment
Milgram recruited a total of 40 participants by mail and by advertisement in the newspaper in which they were invited to take part in an experiment on “memory and learning” for which in addition, for the simple fact of participating they would be paid a sum of four dollars (equivalent to about 28 current) assuring him that they would keep the payment “regardless of what happens after his arrival.”
They were told that three people were needed for the experiment: the researcher (who wore a white coat and served as authority), the teacher, and the student. Volunteers were always assigned through a false lottery the role of teacher, while the role of 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 in the other room in front of an electric shock generator with thirty switches that regulated the intensity of the shock in increments of 15 volts, ranging between 15 and 450 volts and which, according to the researcher, would provide the indicated shock to the student.
Milgram too s****made sure to place labels indicating the intensity of the shock (moderate, strong, danger: severe shock and XXX) The reality was that said generator was fake, since it did not provide any shock to the student and only produced sound when pressing the switches.
The mechanics of the experiment
The recruited subject or teacher was instructed to teach word pairs to the learner and that, in case he made any mistakes, The student had to be punished by applying an electric shock, which would be 15 volts more powerful after each mistake
Evidently, the student never received shocks. However, to provide realism to the situation for the participant, after pressing the switch, a previously recorded audio was activated with wails and screams that increased with each switch and became more plaintive. If the teacher refused or called the researcher (who was close to him in the same room), the researcher responded with a predefined and somewhat persuasive response: “please continue,” “please continue,” “the experiment needs you.” 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 listening to screams in the next room which, apparently, were caused by electric shocks. Three subjects had “long, uncontrollable attacks” and while most subjects were uncomfortable doing so, all forty subjects obeyed up to 300 volts while 25 of the 40 subjects continued delivering shocks up to the maximum level of 450 volts.
This reveals that 65% of the subjects made it to the end, even when in some recordings the subject complained of having heart problems The experiment was terminated by the experimenter after three shocks of 450 volts.
Conclusions drawn by Stanley Milgram
Milgram’s conclusions from the experiment can be summarized in the following points:
A) When the subject obeys the dictates of authority, his conscience stops functioning and an abdication of responsibility occurs.
B) The subjects are more obedient the less they have contacted the victim and the further they are physically from the victim.
C) Subjects with an authoritarian personality are more obedient than non-authoritarian ones (classified as such, after an evaluation of fascist tendencies).
D) The closer proximity to authority, the greater obedience.
E) The greater the academic training, the less intimidation authority produces, so there is a decrease in obedience.
F) People who have received military-type training 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 were brought to war criminals (including Adolf Eichmann) for the Jewish Holocaust. The defense of Eichmann and the Germans when they testified at trial for crimes against humanity was that They simply obeyed and followed orders, which subsequently led Milgram to ask himself the following questions: Were the Nazis really evil and heartless or was it a group phenomenon that could happen to anyone under the same conditions? Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were only following orders from Hitler and Himmler?
Obedience to authority, a principle that would explain institutionalized violence
The principle of obedience to authority It has been defended in our civilizations as one of the pillars on which society is sustained. On a general level, it is obedience to authority that allows the protection of the subject, however, exacerbated obedience can be a double-edged sword when the helpful discourse of “I was only obeying orders” exempts from responsibilities and disguises impulses as duty. sadists
Before the experiment, some experts hypothesized that only 1% to 3% of individuals would activate the 450-volt switch (and that these subjects would also experience some pathology, psychopathy, or sadistic impulses). Despite this, It was ruled out that any of the volunteers had any pathology, and aggressiveness was also ruled out as a motivation after a series of various tests on the volunteers. Given the data, Milgram postulated two theories to try to explain the phenomena.
First theory: conformity with the group
The first based on the works of Asch conformity Submits that an individual who does not have the ability or knowledge to make decisions, (particularly in the face of a crisis) will transfer decisions to the group
Second theory: reification
The second, more widely accepted theory is known as reification and refers to the fact that The essence of obedience is that the person is perceived only as an instrument for the fulfillment of the other person’s wishes and therefore, is not considered responsible for their actions. 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 social psychology experiments of greatest interest to criminology when it comes to demonstrate the fragility of human values in the face of blind obedience to authority
Their results showed that ordinary people, when ordered by a figure with just a little authority, are capable of acting cruelly. In this way, criminology has managed 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 to be authority.
