Stanley Milgram: Obedience To Atrocious Thoughts?

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Stanley Milgram was a psychologist at Yale University who conducted an experiment in 1963 focusing on the discord between obedience to authority and personal conscience. He examined arguments for acts of genocide offered by those accused at the World War II, Nuremberg War Criminal trials. Their cover often was based on "obedience" - that they were just following orders from their superiors. Male Volunteers were recruited for a study of "memory and learning". The volunteer was to play role of "teacher" and was required to ask the "learner", who was an actor, questions and oversee discipline through an electric shock when the student gave wrong answer. There was also an “experimenter”, played by an actor was dressed in a gray lab coat. In reality,…show more content…
The purpose of the test is to see whether the teacher will call a stop to the experiment or proceed to the point where they are managing apparently deadly electric shocks to the victim essentially on the grounds that the scientist is instructing them to. In the video, the scientist when putting the electrode on the learner in front of the teacher clearly says that it should be good contact with the skin to avoid any blistering and burning. You can see the reaction of the teachers already being nervous and anxious while one is laughing. The teachers are given an example of a low voltage shock before the start of the experiment. Some of the volunteers shown could be seen distressed, nervous and telling the experimenter to have a look at the learner when they stopped hearing him shout every time the electric shock was increased. They also kept asking whether the shock was harmful or not. One also stopped with the experiment despite the experimenter insisting to go on with it. There was another volunteer who continues with the experiment even though he clearly didn’t want but continues till the end of 450 volts. At the end of experiment the scientist tell them they were not generating electric shock, you can see how they were so relieved and happy that they hugged the learner who was a complete stranger. The Milgram experiment had over
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