Analysis Of The Tuskeegee Syphilis Study

The Tuskeegee Syphilis Study was an embarrassing event in American History. It is tempting to accuse those responsible for the experiments as evil people. A more reasonable approach is to use psychology to help explain the behavior of those that committed these acts.

Milgram conducted one of the most famous experiments in the field of psychology. Electric Shock experiment measured people’s response to an authority figure and consisted of a subject who would administer electric shocks of varying degrees to a confederate in another room whenever the confederates would answer questions incorrectly. The confederate acted as if he/she was shocked to make the subject believe that the electric shocks were real when in reality they were not. The subject was asked by the researcher to increase the intensity of the shock every time the confederate answered incorrectly. The researcher would firmly ask the subject to continue the shocks despite the confederates pleading with the subjects to stop the shocks. The intensity ranged from a small shock to a deadly electric shock. Although some subjects stopped the shocks after listening to the cries of the confederates, ( %) of the subjects continued shocking the confederates until reaching the deadly shock intensity, following the orders of the researcher. This research proved that obedience, despite terrible consequences, could occur when an authority figure is making the request.

Milgram’s obedience study emerged because many Nazis rationalized their discriminative actions towards Jews in World War II by stating they were following orders. A similar situation may have occurred in the Syphilis Study. The doctors working under the researchers continued in the study despite knowing that the stu...

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...lly when compared to Whites. The initial stereotype, which may have started when Africans were first brought into America as slaves, may have been the reason that the local physicians were able to justify their lack of treatment for these people despite the consequences of their inactions.

Evil behavior can be explained better by avoiding the fundamental attribution error of assuming that people commit evil acts because they are evil. Through the concepts of Reinforcement and Stereotype and the studies by Milgram and Bandura et al., psychology has helped explain, in a reasonable way, how a horrendous event such as the Tuskeegee Syphilis Study may have occurred. Although these explanations do not remove any personal responsibility from those participating in the study, they do provide an educated way to explain the behavior of these people.

JOHNNY NUNEZ