He might be better than that!
...requires that you continue
30 volts... [screaming]
The experiments that Milgram and others conducted were
controversial and for ethical reasons
may never be conducted again.
Yes the results of those experiments
remain groundbreaking and increasingly
relevant to contemporary life.
In 1962, Stanley Milgram shocked the world with his study
on obedience. To test his theories he
invented an electronic box that would
become a window into human cruelty. In
ascending order a row of buttons marked
to the amount of voltage one person
would inflict upon another.
Milgram's original motive for the
experiment was to understand the
unthinkable - how the German people could
permit the extermination of the Jews.
-When I learn of incidents such as the
massacre of millions of men, women and
children perpetrated by the Nazis in
World War two,
how is it possible, I asked myself, that
ordinary people, who are courteous and decent
in everyday life can act callously,
inhumanely, without any limitations of
conscience. Now there is some studies in my
discipline, social psychology, that seemed
to provide a clue to this question.
The problem I wanted to study was a little bit different, went a little bit further. It was the
issue of authority. Under what conditions
would a person obey authority, who
commanded actions that went against
conscience.
These are exactly the questions that I
wanted to investigate at Yale University.
It is May 1962. An experiment is being
conducted in the elegant interaction
laboratory at Yale University. Subjects
are 40 males between the ages of 20 and
50 residing in the greater New Haven
area. -Psychologists have developed several
theories to explain how people learn. One
theory is that people learn things
correctly whenever they get punished for
making a mistake. -40 years later,
Milgram's infamous experiment 'Obedience'
is still taught in classrooms around the world.
Would you roll up your right sleeve, please.
This electrode is connected to the shock
generator in the next room and this
electrode paste is to provide a good
contact to avoid any blister or burn. Do you
have any questions now before we go into
the next room?
-About two years ago I was in the Veteran's Hospital
in West Haven.
And while there they detected a heart
condition - nothing serious, but as long as
I'm having these shocks, how strong are they?
How dangerous are they?
Well no, although they may be painful they're
not dangerous. Anything else?
No, that's all.
Alright, would you take the test
and be seated in front of the shock
generator please in the next room?
But the experiment was rigged. The victim was
an accomplice of the experimenter. The
victim, according to plan, provided many
wrong answers. His verbal responses were
standardized on tape and each protest was
coordinated to a particular voltage
level on the shock generator. -Now as
teacher you are seated in front of this
impressive looking instrument, a shock
generator. Its essential feature is a
line of switches that goes from 15 volts
to 450 volts and a set of verbal
designations that goes from slight shock
to moderate shock, strong shock, very
strong stock, intense shock, extreme
intensity shock, and finally XXX,
dangerous severe shock. Your job, the
experimenter explains to you, is to teach to
learner a simple word pair test. If he gets
each answer correctly, fine, move on to
the next pair but if he makes a mistake
you were instructed to give an electric
shock starting with 15 volts. And you
increase the shock one step on each era.
Incorrect. You'll now get a shock of 105 volts.
Hard hit.
Just how far can you go on this thing?
As far as it's necessary.
What do you mean as far as necessary? -To complete the test.
Incorrect. 150 volts.
Sad face.
Get me out of here. I told you I had heart trouble
and my heart's starting to bother me now.
Wrong. 75 volts, Jim.
Please continue.
Some psychologists were troubled by the
ethics of it.
Many, if not most subjects found it
a highly stressful, conflicted experience.
People are stammering, stuttering,
laughing hysterically, inappropriately.
150 volts.
Experimenter! That's all! Get me out of here. I told you I had heart trouble, my heart's starting to bother me now. Get me out of here,
please! You have no right to keep me here, let me out!
Let me out of here! Let me out!
Continue please.
I'm not gonna be responsible for it.
This'll be at 330.
180 volts.
I can't stand the pain, let me out of here!
He can't stand it, I'm not gonna kill that man.
Concordant to Milgram, one of the things that's a
prerequisite for carrying out acts that
are evil is to shed responsibility from
your shoulders and and hand it over to the
person in charge. -And I got a shock,
180 volts.
I can't stand the pain, let me out of here!
He can't stand it, I'm not going to kill that man today.
I mean who's going to take responsibility if
anything happens to that gentleman?
I'm responsible for anything that happens here. Continue.
Alright, next one. Slow!
walk, dance, truck, music.
2/3 of volunteers were prepared to administer a
potentially fatal electric shock when
encouraged to do so by what they
perceived as a legitimate authority
figure, in this case a man in a white
coat. 375 volts. I think something's happened to that
fellow in there... I didn't get no answer.
He was hollering at less voltage.
Can't you check him to see if he's alright please?
Milgram's findings horrified America. They showed
that decent American citizens were as
capable of committing acts against their
conscience as the Germans had been under
the Nazis. -I didn't hold any gun to
anybody's head, just the fact that he
conveyed a sense of authority, roughly
sixty, sixty-five percent of the people
went all the way to the top of the shock
board. 450 volts. That's it.
Now continue using the last switch on the board,
please, the 450 switch for each wrong
answer. Continue please. -I'm not getting no
answer! Don't the man's health mean anything?
Whether the learner likes it or not-
He might be dead in there!
Who was actually pushing the switch? -I was. But he kept insisting. I
told him no, but he said you gotta keep going!
What kind of obedience would Milgram
get today if he were to do the experiment today?
Probably about the same. -Probably about the same. Why?
I don't know, I think people are just inherently obedient.
It just really shows like how far human
beings will go to appease what they
perceive to be a authority figure.
Milgram has identified one of the constants, one of the
universals of social behavior.
The readiness to obey authority cuts across
time. It's a constant. -In the experiment you
just saw, two-thirds of ordinary people
who were participants went all the way,
went to 450 volts. When it got to 375 volts,
the guy was screaming and then there was
a thud, there was silence and he could
be dead or he could be unconscious.
So if you were doing critical thinking,
if you were that mock teacher in the
study, you should
have said, it doesn't make sense for me
to keep shocking. How could I be improving
his memory if he's unconscious or worse, if he's dead?
But nobody asked that question. They
were trapped in the power of that
situation. But I said Milgram ran a
thousand people. This is only one
study. He actually did 19 different
experiments and each one he varied one
aspect of a social situation and in some
studies he got conformity, compliance,
obedience up to ninety percent. The study
has been repeated, replicated many times
in many different countries with the
same effect.