Psychology - A tid bit!

Who is the guy above this? His name is Stanley Milgram. He is famous for his obedience experiment conducted in the early 1960s. Following the holocaust, Milgram wanted to see how far human behavior's limit was. He decided to test his curiosities.

THE EXPERIMENT:

Stanley Milgram's experiment, conducted in the early 1960s at Yale University, aimed to explore the extent to which individuals would obey authority figures, even if it meant inflicting harm on others. Participants were recruited under the pretext of studying the effects of punishment on learning. In each session, participants were assigned the role of a "teacher," while a confederate (an actor) played the role of a "learner." The teacher was instructed to administer electric shocks of increasing intensity to the learner each time an incorrect answer was given to a memory task.

The shocks ranged from mild to severe, with the highest voltage labeled as potentially lethal. Although the shocks were not real, the participants were unaware of this and believed they were causing genuine pain. As the voltage increased, the learner would scream in pain, plead for the experiment to stop, and eventually fall silent, suggesting unconsciousness or worse. Despite these reactions, the experimenter, dressed in a lab coat to symbolize authority, would urge the participants to continue, using prods such as "Please continue," "The experiment requires that you continue," and "You have no other choice; you must go on."

A significant finding was that a majority of participants (65%) continued to the highest shock level, demonstrating a surprising level of obedience to authority, even when it conflicted with their moral values and the apparent suffering of another person.

THE RESULTS:

Milgram's study revealed the powerful impact of situational factors and authority on human behavior, sparking widespread ethical debates and leading to changes in ethical standards for psychological research. It demonstrated the strong influence of authority on human behavior and the willingness of people to obey orders even when they go against their moral convictions. The experiment's findings have been used to understand behaviors in various real-world contexts, such as military conduct, corporate settings, and societal compliance.