How far would you go to follow orders?
Summary of Milgram's core study.
Milgram's study showed the horrifying extent to which ordinary people are willing to submit to those who they see as being in control.
Milgram was Jewish and had a fascination with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. He felt guilt that he had managaged to avoid suffering a similar fate.
After the war people questioned how such atrocities could have happened and one hypothesis was that 'Germans are different.' This dispositional hypothesis suggests that a person's obedience depends upon their character rather than the situation they are in. Milgram favoured a situational hypothesis that the behaviour exhibited by the Nazis was a result of the conditions at that time.
Milgram's controlled observation (in a laboratory) set out to see if Americans would exhibit total (blind) obedience. He had predicted that levels of obedience would be low.
A self-selected sample of 40 male Americans (aged 20-50 years) volunteered to take part in a study looking at Punishment on Learning (particpants were deceived as this was not the real focus of the study).
Milgram found that 65% of particpants displayed total obedience and gave the 'learner' shocks up to 450v (at the end of the scale). He concluded that blind obedience was a flaw in all, or at least most personalities.
Milgram was Jewish and had a fascination with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. He felt guilt that he had managaged to avoid suffering a similar fate.
After the war people questioned how such atrocities could have happened and one hypothesis was that 'Germans are different.' This dispositional hypothesis suggests that a person's obedience depends upon their character rather than the situation they are in. Milgram favoured a situational hypothesis that the behaviour exhibited by the Nazis was a result of the conditions at that time.
Milgram's controlled observation (in a laboratory) set out to see if Americans would exhibit total (blind) obedience. He had predicted that levels of obedience would be low.
A self-selected sample of 40 male Americans (aged 20-50 years) volunteered to take part in a study looking at Punishment on Learning (particpants were deceived as this was not the real focus of the study).
Milgram found that 65% of particpants displayed total obedience and gave the 'learner' shocks up to 450v (at the end of the scale). He concluded that blind obedience was a flaw in all, or at least most personalities.
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Milgram, S. (1963) 'Behavioural study of obedience', Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371-8.
These videos show Parts one and two of the BBC Horizon programme 'How Violent Are You?'
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http://www.holah.karoo.net/milgram.htm
This website is useful for Psychology students - visit the Milgram page for additional support.