The Milgram Experiment

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The Milgram Experiment
(Hart) Stanley Milgram’s experiment in the way people respond to obedience is one of the most important experiments ever administered. The goal of Milgram’s experiment was to find the desire of the participants to shock a learner in a controlled situation. When the volunteer would be ordered to shock the wrong answers of the victims, Milgram was truly judging and studying how people respond to authority. Milgram discovered something both troubling and awe inspiring about the human race. “Since they were first published in 1963, MIlgram’s sensational findings have been offered as an explanation for mass genocide during the Holocaust and events such as the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam and the torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison”(Perry 223-224). The way Milgram was able to control the experiment shows how the human race can crack under pressure and obey orders, no matter the consequence. Although, not everything was as it seems when it came to the results of the findings. As Milgram used actors to portray the “victims” in the experiment, so no one was truly being tortured. Milgram wanted to show that pressure can get to anyone, in any situation.

(Simmerman) In the book, The Man Who Shocked The World, Thomas Blass says that Stanley Milgram was born on August 15th 1933 in the Bronx of New York. He was born from Jewish immigrants who emigrated from Hungary. Milgram was the 2nd of three children. He began school at PS77 in the Bronx where it quickly became evident that he had a superior intellect. His IQ was 158 and the average student’s IQ was 100. Stanley, while other children were out playing sports, would be inside experimenting because of his interest in science. He attended James Monroe High School...

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... individual for answering the questions wrong. Is this to extreme, or a necessary evil? After all, they weren’t actually shocking them. Even though the individuals were not actually shocked how do you feel about this method of experimentation? (Langlois)

Works Cited

Perry, Gina. "Response To Russell's Review Of Behind The Shock Machine." Journal Of The
History Of The Behavioral Sciences 49.2 (2013): 223-224.Academic Search Premier. Web.
26 Nov. 2013.
Blass, Thomas. The Man Who Shocked The World/ The Life And Legacy Of Stanley Milgram., Basic Books 2004
“Stanley Milgram” Encyclopedia.com 2008
< http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Stanley_Milgram.aspx >
McLeod, S.A. "Milgram Experiment - Simply Psychology." 2007. Simply Psychology. 26 November 2013.
Milgram, Stanley. "Behavioral Study of Obedience." n.d. Evergreen State College. web. 26 November 2013.

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