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The Milgram Obedience Experiment: Logan Pratts

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The Milgram Obedience Experiment Logan Pratts Mount Saint Michael Academy Advanced Psychology Ms. Johnson February 26, 2023 Throughout human history, the world has gone through many eras of different leaders. Leaders such as Alexander the Great, Basil II, and Napoleon Bonaparte were all successful because of their tactics and their ability to fully utilize the capabilities of their subordinates. The authority that people of power have allows others to be used as tools, but how far does authority go? Think back to Nazi Germany, many German soldiers knew of the atrocities that Hitler incited, but they all continued to follow orders. The reason why many people continue to follow orders even if they bring harm to others is the fear …show more content…

His family was primarily made up of Jewish immigrants; he grew up learning what happened to his relatives in Europe and he was particularly intrigued by Hannah Arendt’s report on the trial of Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem. Milgram wondered whether her claims about “the banality of evil” – that evil acts can come from ordinary people following orders as they do their jobs – could be demonstrated in the lab (Blass, 2002). The Milgram Obedience Experiment then began in July 1961, the same month as Adolf Eichmann’s trial (Greenwood, 2018). The experiment contained 3 people, the experimenter, the teacher, and the …show more content…

The first run had the learner get 3 answers correct and 7 answers wrong, resulting in a shock of 105 volts. In the second run, the teacher was told to read a list of words until the learner got the correct pair which meant that the teacher would have to increase the voltage up to 450 volts which were labeled as “Danger Severe Shock”. At around 300 volts the learner would start kicking against the wall and not respond to the teacher anymore. If the teacher failed to shock the learner the experimenter would give 4 responses that urged the teacher to administer the shock. The experimenter would either say “ Please Continue”, “The experiment requires that you continue”, “It is essential that you continue”, or finally “ You have no other choice you must go on”. Throughout the experiment, the teachers were told that there would be no permanent damage done by the shocks, and when the experiment was over they were asked to rate the pain of the last shock they administered on a scale from 0 to

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