The Milgram Experiment was a social psychological study conducted by Stanley Milgram in 1961 at Yale University. It was an examination of obedience in men.
With it, he wanted to test the limits of obedience in men. He wanted to know how far men were willing to go to obey an authority figure.
Milgram wanted to know if they were willing to disrupt their personal conscience for the sake of obedience.
An Example of Obedience
In 1984, one of the most horrific acts happened.
During a competition of discipline and skills, a competitor, who no one thought was good enough to be part of the tournament, rose in the ranks. He beat everyone decisively.
Matter fact, he (Daniel) made it all the way to the finals.
Starting off the match, Daniel did really well. He won the first rounds and this put anger (with a side of fear) into his opponent’s soul.
Driven by negative thoughts and emotions, the opposing Sensei forced his champion, Johnny, to cheat.
“Sweep the leg,” the Sensei said.
His champion stares at him in shock.
“Do you have a problem with that?” asked the coach.
“No, Sensei,” Johnny submissively responded.
“No mercy.”
During the round, Johnny waited for the perfect moment to sweep his competitor’s legs, a move that would further injure Daniel’s leg and potentially sideline him.
Johnny saw an opening and went in for the kill. He swept his opponent and Daniel went down hard.
But he was able to continue. Johnny continued to pummel Daniel for the remaining rounds, adding points to his side of the scoreboard.
Each competitor only needed one more point to win.
Daniel, beaten up and injured, needed to pull out his special to win. As Johnny lunged forward to attack, Daniel crane kicked him in the jaw, knocking his nemesis out.
After the bout, Johnny felt terrible and apologized. He even congratulated his rival.
Okay, so if you didn’t notice, this is a scene from The Karate Kid (and you should’ve noticed because I added a clip of it).
And even though it’s a fictional event, it is a great example of obedience (the thing that Milgram was researching, if you somehow already forgot).
What is The Milgram Experiment?
Milgram wanted to examine obedience because he wanted to understand why Nazi soldiers obeyed Adolf Hitler during World War II.
To test this, he created a social psychological experiment that forced subjects to shock a learner.
Of course, the shocks were fake, but the subjects didn’t know this. They truly believed that they were inflicting pain on someone in a different room.
So, here’s how the experiment essentially went (or the procedure for you fancy folks):
The authority figure would ask the actor a question. And then after the actor answers, the authority figure would tell the subject to send a shock. But as the experiment went on, the shocks got stronger and stronger.
The actor would also react more dramatically as the “shocks” increased in strength.
Some subjects opposed harming the learner, but a high proportion obeyed the instructions.
So what does this have to do with anything? Well, it just means that the majority of people are obedient. Some are too obedient.
So when horrific acts are committed (like in the aforementioned movie), the person doing the harmful act shouldn’t be the only one blamed.
We have to look deeper into the case and see if there was an authoritative figure giving out demands and/or orders.
Now, on paper, this seems obvious and common sense to do this.
But how many of us actually take this into consideration when we read or hear a news story of a horrific act?
I most certainly don’t. And if I don’t, I know some of you don’t either.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. The Milgram Experiment is a fascinating study. It reveals the degree that people are willing to go to obey a figure of authority.
What level or degree of obedience do you think you would go to? Would you obey orders that would harm someone or something?