Stanley Milgram's Obedience To Social Pressure
Obedience to Social Pressure
The social pressure begins since the day a child we born. Our parents give us the first glimpse of the feel of social pressure without the newborn having the littlest idea of what it is. The social pressure of family unity begins when the child is born, and parents have the fear of their own family would retract and speak negatively of their own kids. Is the child ugly? What color is the skin? And many more questions ignite? Parents do fear the worse since their child is born. The reason for not welcoming with love their newborn child, is because they are worried about what others would say, they will be intrigued with uncommon and hurtful remarks from others. Parents feel the social pressure to fit in with the
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The reason of his interest was caused by a remark after the trial of Adolf Eichmann, who was on trial for war crimes committed during War World II. The remark was how Adolf Eichmann’s defense claimed he was simply following instructions when he ordered the deaths of millions of Jews. The participation to the learning of Milgram’s experiments draw many subjects with the promise of participation to be paid in the amount of $4.50. It all begins with a shock generator, and the focus is on the person who has the role of the “teacher,” the teacher watches the learner taking part in a learning memory game. The shock generator has many levels of voltage starting from 30 volts and all the way to 450 volts. Instructions have been given to the “teacher”, switches on the panel of the generator are marked with the many levels labelled as “slight shock,” “moderate shock,” “strong shock,” “danger: severe shock,” (Two switches after the last designation are simply marked XXX) (Milgram 632). Just like in Adolf Eichmann’s response that he too was following orders from above, this “teacher,” follows procedure to continue until the point where consequences can happen. During this testing Stanley Milgram concludes that “The essence of obedience” (Milgram 641), in a person by doing what others request no matter the consequences even death. These persons, who obey to the letter of the requestor, or the superior, attribute the entire responsibility to the person who is requesting the behavior of obedience by implementing the orders of bad behavior, instructions, or details to commit murder like the case of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi leader who was responsible for the death of millions of Jews during World War
Comparing A Few Good Men And The Perils Of Obedience
1546 Words | 7 PagesIn A Few Good Men, director Rob Reiner portrays the court case of two Marines named Dawson and Downey, on trial for the murder of another Marine, William Santiago. Santiago was killed due to a code red ordered by Kendrick and Jessep. Dawson and Downey felt that they are innocent because they were just following orders. The same situation arises in “The Perils of Obedience,” by Stanley Milgram. Milgram believes that everyone is inclined to be obedient but not hold responsibility, and proves this by including an experiment where while administering shocks to learners, teachers would only continue when being told to do so and when they were told that they are not responsible for what happens to the learner.
Themes In Kindred
753 Words | 4 PagesWhen a baby is born, it is pure. Their mind is malleable and impressionable. That young impressionable baby growls to love their parents from the minute they’re born. They then begin to hear potentially toxic and bigoted opinions from their parents and latch onto those ideas because they can’t yet form their own opinions. These ideas they’ve latched onto are often problematic.
Obedience In Stanley Milgram's 'The Perils'
1262 Words | 6 PagesThe CivilWarLand is a family-oriented theme park close to closing as the gangs have been vandalizing and creating problems for the park owner Mr.Alsuga. Mr.Alsuga is determined to keep the park open, using the narrator and other characters to do his dirty work regardless of the consequences. In "The Perils of Obedience," Stanley Milgram conducts an experiment to test how far people are willing to bend their morals and go against their own conscience to appease the authority figure, in this case, the Experimenter. Milgram's hypothesis was proven wrong as the majority of people would go against their conscience and appease the authority figure despite the harm they were doing to the learner. Milgram's experiment demonstrated that people would go to extreme lengths to obey a superior, regardless of the consequences.
Similarities Between The Perils Of Obedience And The Stanford Prison Experiment
1154 Words | 5 PagesIn Milgram’s experiment, the longer the teachers were under the influence of the experimenter, the easier it became for them to shock the learner. A specific example of this would be from Fred Prozi, whose results were extremely dramatic. Once the experiment had begun and the learner started to show discomfort from the shocks, Prozi half-heartedly refused to continue. All it took was a little push from the experimenter and the confirmation of having no liability if anything were to happen to get Prozi to continue to give the learner all 450 volts (582-584). Both of these experiments call attention to how easy it is for people to obey a higher authority based on what kind of situation they are
The Milgram Experiments
992 Words | 4 PagesHe saw that the more personal, or close, the real participant had to be to the fake one, while they were being shocked, affected the obedience as well. He also noticed that if there were two other fake participants teaching that refused to shock their learners that the real participant would not comply. Finally, he tested the experimenter telling the real patient to shock the learner by telephone, instead of actually being there in person, reduced obedience as well (McLead). The Milgram experiment and the Nuremburg trials can relate extensively to explain how the Holocaust happened the way it did.
Stanley Milgram's Use Of Deception In Civil Disobedience
832 Words | 4 PagesThis method is called deception, in which the participants are not told something, for benefit of the experiment as a whole. In the experimenter’s point- of-view, the actor is strapped to the metal armchair and the deceived participant acts as a teacher that is testing memory and reads off pairs of words (Blass, Print). After this procedure, the actor must repeat the pairs, only given one of the two words. The actor soon begins to get the words incorrect and the participant who is teaching must electrocute the actor when they answer a question wrong. In reality, the actor really wasn’t receiving the shocks, yet pretended to.
What Does It Mean To Say Simon Say Essay
580 Words | 3 PagesObserved during the Holocaust and studied later at Yale University, authority can be used to manipulate people into doing just about anything. In a study of obedience, the Milgram Experiment tested how individuals would respond to being forced to administer high voltage shocks to a person behind a wall. Even when the unseen person would scream and beg for the shocks to end, the experiment overseer would tell the test subject to continue giving shocks. The results of the study showed that people were willing to bypass their morals in attempts to follow orders from an authoritative figure. Unfortunately, many outsiders would assess this situation and fail to realize that the terror does not lie within the people who submitted to the viscous instructions, but within the person who commanded them and watched the ordeal unfold from the
Living Like Weasels Analysis
1189 Words | 5 PagesPeople care what others think about them. People are taught by society about what is supposedly right and wrong and how to live life “correctly”. Societal expectations write a rule book for life that cannot help but create a rocky development for every individual within any culture. Therefore, these expectations cause more harm than good for individual’s development. One can look at any society or culture around the world and see expectations put forth from an invisible, omniscient character.
Why Is Milgram's Research Important?
950 Words | 4 PagesMilgram himself concluded how easily ordinary people ‘can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority". (Milgram 1974) As this report has highlighted the research is not without controversy with many questioning to what extent Milgram’s experiment is true to real life and has been criticized for not highlighting further situational variables in determining obedience to authority. Regardless of this, there is no doubt Milgram highlighted a rather troubling phenomenon.
Essay On Stanford Prison Experiment
599 Words | 3 PagesStanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo questioned, “What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?” (Zimbardo, 1971) In 1971 a psychologist named Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment on the effects prison has on young males with the help of his colleague Stanley Milgram. They wanted to find out if the reports of brutality from guards was due to the way guards treated prisoners or the prison environment.
Just Do What The Pilot Tells You Analysis
475 Words | 2 PagesIn “The Genocidal Killer in the Mirror”, Crispin Sartwell argues that the average citizen can be convinced to commit atrocious crimes under the right circumstances from the premise that the traits to become a genocidal killer are not that uncommon, using examples from recent history such as the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and the Rwandan Genocide. Sartwell clarifies that although most people delude themselves into thinking that they wouldn’t partake in genocide if they were placed in a similar situation as many have before, it would take a “moral hero” (Sartwell 118) to refuse the opportunity given the circumstances. On the other hand, in “Just Do What the Pilot Tells You”, author Theodore Dalrymple claims that people's response to authority in respect to their obedience is what leads the average man to kill countless others. While both authors address the fact that it doesn’t take a malicious person to engage in genocide, Sartwell focuses more on the qualities that people who commit genocide commonly share, Dalrymple seems more concerned on how people react to authority in
What Is The My Lai Massacre A Military Crime Of Obedience By Ian Parker
1189 Words | 5 PagesIan Parker, author of “Obedience”, provides accurate depictions of the immediate and long-term effects of Dr. Stanley Milgram’s Experiment. In addition, he includes that under complex situations, individuals are easily induced to react through a destructive manner (Parker103). Americans commonly underestimate the influences of a situation; however, Parker thoroughly delineates the consequences behind blind obedience (Parker 104). Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton, authors of “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience” construe the atrocity of blind obedience committed by the United States Military. In March of 1968, crimes of obedience occurred due to an elusive order commanded by a higher ranked officer (Kelman&Hamilton 131).
Milgram's Theory Of Following Orders
174 Words | 1 PagesThe military spokesman justifies the gruesome and violent attacks towards Egyptian civilians by claiming, “… these soldiers were on duty, what were they supposed to do?” The idea of following orders is a common explanation many militants and police officers use in order to not be held liable. Scientist, Stanley Milgram, experiments the idea of becoming obedient towards authority that may control the decision of individuals. Milgram inspiration derives from the notorious Nazi officer, Adolf Eichmann, who similarly claims that he was simply following orders during the genocide of millions of Jews. Although, Stanley Milgram has proven that individuals tend to follow orders from authority, Egyptian militants who participated in the horrid attacks
Military Training Psychology
1026 Words | 5 PagesPsychologists define learning as a behavior or knowledge that comes from experience or training which ties into the aspect of military training and its benefits for soldiers. Learning is the basis of psychology and there are many theories linked with different types of learning. Some of the most important types of learning in the military are operant conditioning and social learning. Without these training methods soldiers would not be able to lose the fear of being killed on the battlefield and learn leadership skills in combat. Military training helps soldiers prepare for battle with the knowledge and behaviors they obtain from observation and training.
Stella Took The Shawl Away Analysis
507 Words | 3 PagesShe only stood, because if she ran they would shoot…” (4). The guards and the soldiers are symbols for the change of morality. They have the feeling that it is their right to take over other people’s lives such as Magda’s and the prisoners’, who are also damaged physically from the harsh treatment they receive. When looking at Milgram’s experiment, subjects also treat the students as if they were animals: “Of the 40 subjects, 26 obeyed the orders of the experimenter to the end, proceeding to punish the victim until they reached the most potent shock available on the shock generator”(Milgram). Most of the subjects accept the authority even though they knew that it may be dangerous to shock the victims with high voltage.
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