The Milgram Experiment

[Alex .]

What is the communities view on the Milgram Experiment?

The Milgram Experiment is an investigation into obedience and the effect of punishment on learning. Volunteers were randomly assigned as 'Teachers' or 'Students'. The teachers aided learning by adminstering electric shocks of increasing voltage each time students, situated in another room answered a question incorrectly. The voltage levers were labelled Mild to Severe Shock (450 Volts), the teachers were instructed to progress with shocks by the experimenter with them.

The disturbing findings showed that 62% of the teachers inflicted shocks to the maximum, despite their own discomfort and cries of pain coming from pupils.

Like I said earlier, what are your views, and what conclusions can be obtained from this experiment?

[TurtleR]

What is this for? Shouldn't this be in the debates and discussion section, or is it for work?

And also, correct me if I'm wrong, but from my knowledge of the Milgram Experiment, all volunteers of the experiment were "teachers". They were told to pick a piece of paper which would tell them if they were a "student" or "teacher". In reality, all the pieces of paper said "teacher" while an actor for the experiment would claim their piece said "student". This way, the experimenters could ensure nobody ACTUALLY got shocked, because the electrical shocks the "teachers" thought they were applying were actually fake, and prerecorded sounds.

Also, I believe this experiment was a bit skewed, because the "teachers" were in the same room as the experimenter. If they expressed the desire to stop, the experimenter would urge them to continue. The experiment would be stopped whenever the "teacher" still wished to stop after 4 prompts from the experimenter, or applied the maximum shock a few times in succession.

In my opinion, I think that because the "teachers" were aware they were a part of an experiment, they would obviously consider the experimenter to be the expert. In society, we usually listen to the expert in matters of his/her expertise. Why else do we listen to doctors, or lawyers, or even tech experts and an electronics store?