The Milgram Shock Experiment is a social psychology experiment conducted by psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1961. The experiment aimed to study obedience to authority, and it has become one of the most controversial and widely-discussed studies in psychology.
The experiment involved participants being asked to administer electric shocks to another person who was pretending to be a participant but was actually an actor. The actor was seated in another room and was connected to an electric shock generator, which had a range of voltage levels that ranged from 15 volts to 450 volts. The participant was asked to read out a series of word pairs, and when the actor made a mistake, the participant was instructed to administer an electric shock to the actor. The shocks increased in intensity with each mistake, and the participant was told to continue administering shocks even when the actor screamed in pain and begged to be released from the experiment.
The experiment was designed to test whether people would obey authority figures even when doing so conflicted with their personal conscience. Milgram was interested in understanding why so many people in Nazi Germany had followed orders to carry out atrocities during the Holocaust. He hypothesized that people were capable of committing terrible acts if they were told to do so by an authority figure.
The experiment was conducted at Yale University and involved 40 male participants between the ages of 20 and 50. Milgram recruited participants through advertisements in local newspapers, and they were paid $4.50 for their participation. Participants were told that they were taking part in a study of memory and learning, and they were paired with the actor, who they believed was another participant. The participants were then taken to another room where they could see the actor through a one-way mirror.
Milgram acted as the authority figure and instructed the participants to administer the shocks. He told them that the shocks were painful but not dangerous and that the experiment was important for understanding the role of punishment in learning. He also assured the participants that they would not be held responsible for any harm that came to the actor.
The experiment was designed to be extremely stressful for the participants. They were put in a situation where they were required to inflict pain on another person, even though they had no personal animosity towards the actor. The shocks were also administered in a gradual and seemingly random manner, which added to the psychological stress that the participants experienced.
The results of the experiment were shocking. Despite the actor screaming in pain and begging to be released, 65% of the participants continued to administer shocks until the maximum voltage level of 450 volts was reached. Only 35% of the participants stopped administering shocks before the end of the experiment.
The participants who administered the shocks reported feeling extreme stress and discomfort during the experiment. Some of them experienced physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, and stuttering. Many of them questioned the morality of the experiment and whether they were doing the right thing by following Milgram’s instructions.
The Milgram Shock Experiment has been heavily criticized for ethical reasons. Critics argue that the experiment subjected participants to psychological harm and violated their right to informed consent. They also argue that the experiment lacked scientific validity because it did not accurately simulate a real-world situation where obedience to authority might be required.
Despite these criticisms, the Milgram Shock Experiment remains an important and influential study in the field of psychology. It has provided valuable insights into the psychology of obedience and has helped researchers understand the social and psychological factors that contribute to the commission of atrocities such as those committed during the Holocaust.
In conclusion, the Milgram Shock Experiment was a groundbreaking study that shed light on the complex relationship between obedience to authority and personal conscience. While the experiment has been heavily criticized for ethical reasons, it has also provided valuable insights into the psychology of human behavior.