Stanley Milgram's Obedience Study

. In Behavioral Study of Obedience, Stanley Milgram revealed two unexpected findings he discovered from his experiment. The first finding was that humans clearly had a natural tendency to willingly or unwillingly obey to authorities. The subjects in the experiment were all aware of the fact that harming others was morally wrong. As they had to electrically shock the learner, the subjects showed the symptoms of nervousness. Some subjects looked reluctant to go further with the experiment and the others criticized the research. They knew what they were doing was horrific and the learner was probably in great pain. However, the subjects were unable to defy the experimenter, or the authority. Their once thought to be clear judgment became clouded. In other words, people quickly submit to their authorities in difficult situations and kept continuing what they were told even though it was wrong. The second finding was that the tension created from this experiment was incredibly difficult for these subjects to perform. Initially, the expected result was that a subject could easily refuse to go on, when he felt uncomfortable. However, the result was not as predicted. One observer for the experiment

When the experiment was conducted outside of Yale University, the obedience level fell to 48%. Yale University was one of the most prestigious universities in the world. It was easier for the subjects to believe that the experiment was legitimate and important. Subjects felt they were obligated to carry out this significant experiment and not ruin it by refusing to go further. When the experiments were performed outside of the university, the credibility of the experiment fell down. Also, it was easier for the subjects to refuse to continue the experiments because the experiments were thought to be not as important as the ones at Yale