Describe the experiments of Stanley Milgram and explain their contributions to our understanding about obedience to authority

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Stanley Milgram conducted a series of controversial experiments to find answers about people's obedience to authority. Obedience is a form of compliance in which people follow direct orders from someone in a position of authority. When the experimenter indicated that the teacher should give the learner increasingly painful shocks, 65 percent of the teachers administered shocks all the way up to the 450 volt level. The study provides evidence that obedience to authority may be more common than most of us would like to believe. None of the teachers challenged the process before they had applied 300 volts. Almost two-thirds went all the way to what could have been a deadly jolt of electricity if the shock generator had been real. For many years, Milgram's findings were found to be consistent in a number of different settings and with variations in the research design.

This research raised questions concerning research ethics. Milgram's subjects were deceived about the nature of the study in which they were asked to participate. It would be virtually impossible today to obtain permission to replicate this experiment in a university setting.