Comparing Milgram's Extreme Electric Shock To An Innocent Middle-Aged Man
Analysis of Milgram’s study
Milgram’s results were shocking to say the least (no pun intended). Why would average, everyday people agree to administer extreme electric shock to an innocent middle-aged man? Were the participants sadists (people who enjoy giving others pain)? Did Milgram manage somehow to recruit only “crazy participants”?
The answer to these questions is of course “No.” The participants were indeed average people who came from all walks of life. They were young, old, rich, poor, educated and uneducated. So what accounts for their obedience?
Milgram says the essence of obedience is that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes and therefore no longer regards himself as responsible …show more content…
How do they cope with this stress? In Milgram’s study, the participants coped with the stress by becoming Routinized. Routinization is also a characteristic of the agetic state. When you’re routinized, you become immersed in the technical procedures. People become like robots, caught up in what they have to do so they don’t have to think about what they’re doing. In the obedience study, there’s a lot that the participants have to do. They have to read the word pairs, listen for the learner’s answer, tell the learner if the answer is correct or incorrect, announce the level of the shock and administer the shock. One way of dealing with the stress of hurting another person is to direct all of your attention to following the procedures. This makes the task somewhat easier. This is a common behavior for people who are in situations like this. The man who dropped the first atomic bomb for example, was asked how he felt just before dropping the bomb. He replied that he felt nothing because he wasn’t thinking about the implications of dropping the bomb. He was concerned with flying the plane correctly, preparing the bomb, thinking about which buttons to push etc. This is no accident. Such routinization (being obsessed with the technical routine that’s necessary in the situation) makes it easier to carry out an order that ordinarily would be very
Milgram’s results were shocking to say the least (no pun intended). Why would average, everyday people agree to administer extreme electric shock to an innocent middle-aged man? Were the participants sadists (people who enjoy giving others pain)? Did Milgram manage somehow to recruit only “crazy participants”?
The answer to these questions is of course “No.” The participants were indeed average people who came from all walks of life. They were young, old, rich, poor, educated and uneducated. So what accounts for their obedience?
Milgram says the essence of obedience is that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes and therefore no longer regards himself as responsible …show more content…
How do they cope with this stress? In Milgram’s study, the participants coped with the stress by becoming Routinized. Routinization is also a characteristic of the agetic state. When you’re routinized, you become immersed in the technical procedures. People become like robots, caught up in what they have to do so they don’t have to think about what they’re doing. In the obedience study, there’s a lot that the participants have to do. They have to read the word pairs, listen for the learner’s answer, tell the learner if the answer is correct or incorrect, announce the level of the shock and administer the shock. One way of dealing with the stress of hurting another person is to direct all of your attention to following the procedures. This makes the task somewhat easier. This is a common behavior for people who are in situations like this. The man who dropped the first atomic bomb for example, was asked how he felt just before dropping the bomb. He replied that he felt nothing because he wasn’t thinking about the implications of dropping the bomb. He was concerned with flying the plane correctly, preparing the bomb, thinking about which buttons to push etc. This is no accident. Such routinization (being obsessed with the technical routine that’s necessary in the situation) makes it easier to carry out an order that ordinarily would be very