There have been many experiements over the years concerning people's obedience.
The most well known one was conducted by Stanley Milgram in 1961 where he got a number of individuals to willingly administer electric shocks to an individual who got set questions wrong. Each time they got a question wrong, the level of electric shock increased. What the individuals didn't know was that the "victim" was in on the experiment, wasn't getting shocked at all and was deliberately getting the questions wrong to see if they would still shock them despite the shocks reaching deadly levels.
It turned out that 65% of the individuals obeyed the experimenter and administered the highest voltage of 450 volts but 35% refused to go this high. Of course, those that did administer the highest voltage suffered from negative reactions such as sweats, groans of regret, digging their fingernails into their hands and sighing from relief that it was over. Some even had seizures.
Milgram therefore determined that individuals will obey authority figures even if it means causing harm to others. He believed that this experiment would help understand and explain why so many individuals i.e. the Nazis committed such heinous crimes against humanity during WWII.
From this, futher experiments of this nature were carried out and the one that I find even more incredulous and actually quite terrifying is the one carried out by Hoffling in 1966. This involved an experimenter impersonating a doctor and telling 22 nurses to administer lethal doses to a patient. Out of all of them, only one refused to do so.
Obviously they were stopped before they administered the lethal dose but I still find it terrifying that nurses with medical knowledge would be prepared to go through with it all because an authority figure told them too!
Wow that's crazy - especially the nurses experiment! :-O
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think I'd be one of the ones to refuse rather than obey when you can clearly see the situation is wrong.
Em
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http://emberdrake.blogspot.co.uk
Yeah the nurses experiment was indeed scary! Me too, I'd hope I would stop once I started causing someone else to be in pain!
DeleteAbout the shock thing, if I had to, I probably would. I would have to dig deep and let out some real anger, though.
ReplyDeleteI suppose we all could do it if we were angry enough
DeleteI remember hearing about the first experiment at least. It was quite an eye opener. I'd like to think I wouldn't do something that would harm another because an authority figure told me to, but I've never really been put to the test. I think people place far too much trust in authority, or they simply fear it that much. It's probably a bit of both.
ReplyDeleteNot many people have been put to the test and hopefully no one will be put in that sort of situation
DeleteI love love LOVE your psychology posts. :D
ReplyDeleteThat was shocking o_O The one with the nurses! Damn!
Thanks for sharing
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Aww I'm so glad you do! Yeah the nurses one really got me too! No worries :)
DeleteI learnt about the Milgram experiment when I was in college, and it always shocks me that people would actually do it to other people! It gets me wondering whether I'd be the same if I was put in that situation. I like to think that I wouldn't, but you never know.
ReplyDeleteYeah it's unbelievable what people will do if told by an authority figure! I wonder that too. What's scary is that I would probably do what I'm told...
DeleteHmmm. . . Are you reading my Psychology book? I just took a test over this for a college course.
ReplyDeleteHaha well I had to do a powerpoint presentation on Milgram last semester and we were given a lecture on it again a few weeks ago lol!
DeleteThat's insane! I can't even imagine why people would actually want that! lol. Pretty interesting though.
ReplyDeleteLol I think the experimenters just wanted them to obey them just to prove that people will listen to authority figures even if it means causing others harm
DeleteTis very interesting indeed :)
I read about that experiment before. It's insane how much influence a random guy in a labcoat has over people's behaviour!
ReplyDeleteYou should do these Psych Corner posts more often! :D
Indeed it is insane! Though it explains why so many people carry out orders in the military despite knowing they're causing harm to others
DeleteThat's quite appalling that the nurses would do such a thing! I'd speak up if I knew it was wrong! Unbelievable! x
ReplyDeleteAww I agree! And it's good that you know you'd speak up!
DeleteThat's appalling! Brilliant for the 35% of those people who refused to do so!
ReplyDeleteYeah it was good of them! Pity it wasn't a higher percentage though lol!
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