Essay On Conformity And Obedience

Throughout civilization, humans have used conformity and obedience to be accepted in society. They do this in order to be praised by superiors for following orders. This can happen with anything in their lives, from working, religion, and even at school. However, there is a darker side. Many of the greatest atrocities of human civilization have occurred because of the desire to be obedient and conform. Even if it means that they must violate their own values, they will do so in order to maintain their own life and for the survival of their families. Scientists have performed experiments to prove human behavior under these circumstances, such as the ones conducted by Stanley Milgram and Solomon Asch.
Stanley Milgram’s experiment was created to show how well people react when obeying the orders of authority. The subjects who ask the questions were the teachers, and the test subjects who had to answer were the learners. If the learner answers the question incorrectly, the teacher will punish them by giving them a shock that was harmful, but not life-threatening. During the experiment, the intensity of the shock increased, which made the learner yell and scream …show more content…
This means that Milgram has contributed to the fact that people do obey to authority so they won’t face the consequences, or simply to just get a promotion or reward out of it. The Taliban has also forced the supporters to do whatever they command them to do in order to be accepted by the group. Asch was correct about his experiment, because people do conform because they have a desire to be a part of something, making it a basic inability that everyone has. It is true that people do obey and conform, especially within groups, to show that they are tolerated to perform appalling acts that will simply make the person not even think about what they are doing, but for the sake of their own