Summary Of Conformity And The Milgram Shock Experiments On Obedience
Introduction Although we live in a time when we consider ourselves to be civilized human beings who value life and peace, acts of evil occur. Wars are waged and murders are committed every day. The aim of this paper is to explore and recognize what contributed to the atrocities and inflictions of pain that were committed by individuals, many of whom seemed like normal people with families and home lives. Asch’s experiments researched conformity and compliance, when one changes their behaviors to align with the beliefs of a group. Milgram’s studies observed conditions that fostered obedience and contribute to the development of the agentic state theory, one’s tendency to rationalize that responsibilities and blame lie on the authority figure. In order to understand why people inflict pain upon …show more content…
This paper focuses on the findings from the Asch Experiments on conformity and the Milgram Shock Experiments on obedience to answer the question, “how can theories of conformity and the agentic state be used to explain to an individual’s obedience in regards to the infliction of harm upon others.” Through the investigation of this topic, we may be able to understand the thinking and situation of people, such as murderer Nazi SS officers, and be able to promote a society that prevents further atrocities from occurring. Agentic State Theory The Milgram Shock Experiments The Milgram Shock experiments conducted at Yale University in the 1960s were a controversial set of studies formed to observe how
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874 Words | 4 PagesJacob, on the other end of the spectrum, gave up a career as a doctor to become “…a gay activist teaching inner –city kids,” (60). Jacob, who kneeled to authority and flipped the switch on the shock machine, lived his real life by sticking up for himself and others against the crowd or norm. It seems obvious that the only logical explanation is that Milgram’s experiment did not accurately display how our personalities affect whether we obey authority or
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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.
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1012 Words | 5 PagesThe participants in the experiments actually believed they had administered painful electric shocks to another human being, and were visibly distressed throughout the experiment. Although they were not forced to stay and complete the experiment, they were consistently encouraged to keep going despite their obvious discomfort. Milgram (1974) was very careful to debrief all of the participants thoroughly, and followed up on them for some time after the experiment. Despite what many people view as a questionable ethical conduct, 83 % of the participants indicated that they were glad they had taken part in the
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830 Words | 4 PagesIn 1963, Stanley Milgram preformed a study to test the obedience. To understand why the study took place first we must understand what was going on around the world. The world came out of WWII and were trying to make sense of the atrocities that took place under the Nazi regime. Adolf Eichmann, a member of the nazi party, was on trail and when asked what his defense was he stated that He was “just following orders” (Madey). The world was not whiling to accept that as an answer
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The Genocidal Killer In The Mirror Analysis
593 Words | 3 PagesIn contrast, “The Genocidal Killer in the Mirror” focuses on the history of mass death goes back as far as 500 years ago. Sartwell cited some historical events that happened, including the Cambodian Killing Field, Nazi Holocaust, Cultural Revolution, Belgians vs. Congolese and the African Slave Trade. In his article, Sartwell assumes that authority especially hierarchies is the most “evil” thing in our society. Sartwell also states that all humans are "evil” (Sartwell), but then ask if evil is something that is learned behavior through institutional means, for example through media and bureaucracy.
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Immorality In Xun Zi's Lord Of The Flies
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