The "Milgram Experiment" by Saul McClead
The "Milgram Experiment" by Saul McClead is an article about how people react and respond to the orders of a figure of authority and what extent they're willing to go to in order to obey the orders given.
In this experiment, the subjects are giving the role of a "Teacher". The Teachers role is to administer electric shocks to their patients when they answer a question incorrectly. The shock generators had 30 switches, each switch administers a shock more intense than the previous switch. The strength of the shock started with 15 volts, enough to cause slight shock, all the way to 450 volts which is fatal. (The story isn't correct because the volts will not kill you, the amps are what cause death.)
Throughout the expiriement 65% (26 out of 40) continued to administer the lethal shocks. Personally, this is not a surprising statistic to me, through childhood we are taught to obey any form of authority or to obey anyone who outranks us (eg, parents, teachers, police etc). Since this is an instinct formed from childhood it is of no surprise to me that people are willing to follow out actions when told to do so.
The whole point of the experiment was to test the morals of the Nazis who contributed to the genocide occurring during the holocaust. They wanted to test if the German population involved did what they did because they believed their actions were justified or if they only did it because they had pressure put on them by an authorative figure.
Throughout the expiriement 65% (26 out of 40) continued to administer the lethal shocks. Personally, this is not a surprising statistic to me, through childhood we are taught to obey any form of authority or to obey anyone who outranks us (eg, parents, teachers, police etc). Since this is an instinct formed from childhood it is of no surprise to me that people are willing to follow out actions when told to do so.
The whole point of the experiment was to test the morals of the Nazis who contributed to the genocide occurring during the holocaust. They wanted to test if the German population involved did what they did because they believed their actions were justified or if they only did it because they had pressure put on them by an authorative figure.
