Milgram’s study of obedience to authority‚ and the ethical issues it raised for social psychologists The following essay will discuss psychologist Stanley Milgram’s study of obedience to authority‚ and will outline the ethical issues it raised for social psychologists. Milgram was inspired by the Nuremburg trials and the defense of many ex-nazis being that they were coerced into assisting the genocide by simply following orders from higher authority figures. Milgram set out to see if ordinary
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Obedience Obedience is the process which leads a person – or an animal –‚ after listening to an order or a demand from an authoritative figure‚ to obey regardless of the consequences or moral implications derived from following that order or demand. The way in which this demand is followed can very; it can be in an active manner‚ in this case the obedient individual will do what they are told to; or in a passive one‚ where the individual will refrain from doing something‚ for the only reason that
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Behavioral Study of Obedience by Milgram (1963) Background: Some type of authority is necessary when humans live together and obedience is currently a very relevant concept. Throughout World War II‚ millions of people were killed through gas chambers and death camps. Although there was a mastermind behind the plan‚ there needed to be a huge amount of people to carry out the deeds. Some think that this is an ingrained behavior that can override ethical values‚ sympathy‚ and morality. Obedience should not
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individuals’ shoes‚ but that cannot be determined. Conversely‚ the Milgram experiment‚ however controversial‚ proves that a vast majority of people‚ in the right circumstances‚ will physically harm another person based on the orders of a superior. It is hard to refute scientific evidence and statistics. To further this‚ outside observers constantly iterate that regardless of how morally superior one feels outside of the experiment‚ you‚ too would succumb under the pressure. To that I’d say: I probably
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Obedience and Responsibility In Stanley Milgram’s‚ “The Perils of Obedience”‚ Milgram states “The essence of obedience is that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes‚ and he therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions.” (Milgram 6) Through his experiments he shows how we obey commands against our better judgment. It my belief that we are generally obedient as long as someone else assumes responsibility for the outcome. Therefore
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In The Perils of Obedience‚ Stanley Milgram expresses his findings of an experiment he conducted trying to prove the lengths people will go to be obedient to authority. The first experiments included a group of undergraduates from Yale. The experiments involved three subjects: the experimenter‚ the “teacher” and the “learner”. The teacher would read off a series of words. The learner‚ who is strapped to an electric chair‚ would be required to remember the words associated to one another. If the
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Only Obedience or the Beginnings of a Cult? In a magazine article titled Obedience to Authority‚ published in 1974 by Harper’s magazine‚ Dr. Stanley Milgram studied the effects of authority on “ordinary” people. His findings were astonishing. The obedience to authority figures‚ with no threat of repercussion‚ was not only underestimated‚ but unimaginable. The constant willingness to comply with what was asked of them reminded me of the cult led by Charles Manson‚ specifically the Sharon Tate
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tell you to do something and you did it without even considering otherwise? From an early age‚ we are conditioned to respond immediately when an authority figure gives us an order. For this reason‚ I chose an article about a reproduction of the Milgram study that took place in 1963 and established that people will go to extreme lengths to obey authority. The Holocaust was the motivation behind Milgram’s study and we are all knowledgeable of the atrocities ordered by Hitler (Simplepsychology‚ n
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Contrasting among Obedience‚ Conformity and Compliance Obedience‚ Conformity and Compliance- all are human behaviors. Let’s look at the following incidents- 1. The student followed his teacher’s orders. 2. The parents bought a crib for their new born baby. 3. The factory implemented all the safety measures (for its workers) set by the Government. In the first example above‚ we see the student doing as he was told by his teacher. That means he obeyed the teacher‚ which is obedience. In the
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Obedience is the act of practicing obeying; dutiful or submissive compliance. Humans have an instinct to obey because of the role authority plays. Milgram’s research proves my point in his case study that involved shocks of voltage. From birth‚ we learn that everything has a consequence or punishment after an action. Children learn simple philosophies in their youngest age such as obeying their parent’s requests. Something as simple as eating vegetables has a consequence. A reward gives the child
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