Case Study 6: The Milgram Experiment (1961)

Stanley Milgram (1933-1984) a Professor of Social Psychology at Yale, had followed the case of Adolph Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal brought to justice in Israel in 1960. Eichmann's defence had been that he had been following orders. The Israeli court rejected this and found Eichmann guilty and he was duly executed. Milgram gave the matter more thought and then designed the following experiment:
i. Members of the research team invited randomly selected members of the public to assist in research to test the relationship between learning and punishment.
ii. When the volunteers arrived at the research department they always arrived at the same time as another member of the research team who pretended to be another volunteer.
iii. A white-coated researcher met the pair and explained that one would have to play the role of teacher and the other of pupil. The two had to toss a coin to choose, but the toss was rigged so the genuine volunteer was the teacher.
iv. In the presence of the ‘teacher' the ‘pupil' was strapped into a chair and some electrodes were attached. One hand was left free to operate the controls so the ‘pupil' could respond to the questions. The ‘pupil' gave every impression of being anxious about the proceedings, as it was explained that in what followed a wrong answer would be punished by the teacher administering an electric shock.
v. The researcher and the teacher them do the room ajoining. The rooms have no visual link. Communication is via microphone. The teacher reads lists of words for the pupil to memorise and repeat, and has to had levers to administer shocks if there are any wrong answers.
vi. The test begins!
vii. The ‘pupil' in fact gives no ‘live answers'. Instead the ‘teacher' hears a pre-recorded tape. Wrong answers soon come and in accordance with the rules of the experiment the ‘teacher' thinks he is doing, electric shocks are given as punishments. Shocks from 15 to 450 volts are available as wrong answers build up the levels of shocks increase. In fact, no shocks are actually being given, but the ‘teacher' hears the groans, screams and eventually (300 volts or higher) the silence of the ‘pupil.

Milgram's real research question was actually this: ‘How far will a human being go if an anonymous authority orders him to torture or even kill another human being?'

In Milgram's Yale study 65% of ‘pupils' followed the white-coated research's instructions and punished up to the 450-volt limit. When the experiment was replicated at the Max Plank Institute in Munich the figure went up to 85%. The experiment has subsequently been repeated many times and the figures have consistently shown that on average three out every four people will be prepared to go on torturing or even killing in the name of research – the justification the researcher always gives when challenged about the administration of electric shocks, as he often was.

The volunteers were always fully debriefed afterwards
There common reactions were:

They were disturbed by their own behaviour
They could not understand it.
They admit to wanting to ‘get the test right', wanting to ‘help research'.
They said they ‘thought the scientists must know what they were doing'

Milgram's analysis was that ‘teacher' behaviour reflected a biologically necessary trend to conform to group rules and to subordinate the self to the powerful leader. So we are biologically determined to obey, to follow, to do what the others do: since 75% of research subjects act in this way, what does that tell us about what is normal?

Notes: Your view on the Milgram experiment's findings: