MILGRAM (1963) SHOCK EXPERIMENT ON OBEDIENCE
Facts:
❏ Aim was to research how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it
involved harming another person.
❏ Milgram selected participants for his experiment by newspaper advertising
for male participants from Yale University.
❏ Participants were 40 males, aged between 20 and 50, whose jobs ranged
from unskilled to professional. They were paid $4.50 for just turning up.
❏ They were introduced to another participant in the beginning of the
experiment, who is meant to be the experimenter’s confederate.
❏ The confederate is the learner, participant is the teacher. The participant asks
the learner MCQ questions and administers an electric shock to them if they
answer incorrectly, increasing the level of shock each time.
❏ The learner would mainly give wrong answers.
❏ 4 prods were used to ensure that the participants would continue whenever
they would refuse or feel hesitant about the action.
❏ 65% of participants continued to the highest level of 450 volts. All the
participants continued to 300 volts. Only 12.5% stopped at 300V.
❏ Milgram had done 18 variations of this experiment, where the IV would
change in each variation.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the people involved in the holocaust were in an agentic
state of behaviour, in which people allow others to direct their actions and pass off
the responsibility for the consequences to the one giving the order.
Vast majority of participants were willing to obey even in harming someone.
Facts:
❏ Aim was to research how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it
involved harming another person.
❏ Milgram selected participants for his experiment by newspaper advertising
for male participants from Yale University.
❏ Participants were 40 males, aged between 20 and 50, whose jobs ranged
from unskilled to professional. They were paid $4.50 for just turning up.
❏ They were introduced to another participant in the beginning of the
experiment, who is meant to be the experimenter’s confederate.
❏ The confederate is the learner, participant is the teacher. The participant asks
the learner MCQ questions and administers an electric shock to them if they
answer incorrectly, increasing the level of shock each time.
❏ The learner would mainly give wrong answers.
❏ 4 prods were used to ensure that the participants would continue whenever
they would refuse or feel hesitant about the action.
❏ 65% of participants continued to the highest level of 450 volts. All the
participants continued to 300 volts. Only 12.5% stopped at 300V.
❏ Milgram had done 18 variations of this experiment, where the IV would
change in each variation.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the people involved in the holocaust were in an agentic
state of behaviour, in which people allow others to direct their actions and pass off
the responsibility for the consequences to the one giving the order.
Vast majority of participants were willing to obey even in harming someone.
