Ethical Issues In Stanley Milgram's Experiments
The Milgram Study was carried out by Stanley Milgram. Stanley Milgram was working at Yale University as a psychologist. He conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. Milgram selected participants for his experiments by advertising his experiment through the newspaper to participate in his study. He chosen men that ranged from the ages of 25 to 50 and chosen 40 men to participate who were unskilled workers. The objective for his experiment is that Milgram was interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person. Milgram was interested in how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing unethical behaviors towards
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However, Milgram experiment had become an ethical issue for many people who have taken a look at this experiment. The first ethical issue is that the experiment provided deception; the participant of the experiment actually believed that they were really shocking someone. However, Milgram argue that ““illusion is used when necessary in order to set the stage for the revelation of certain difficult-to-get-at-truths””(). The second ethical issue is the protection of the participants; in the Milgram experiment many participants were put under stressful situation that could’ve potentially caused psychological harm. The participants of the experiment showed signs of tension such as trembling, sweating, stuttering, laughing nervously, biting lips and digging fingernails into their palms. Even some participants had uncontrollable seizures, and many participants pleaded for the experiment to be stop. However, Milgram argue that after the experiment was over he made it very clear that the experiment truly did not hurt anyone and he said that really helped with decreasing their stress level. Milgram also “Participants were assured that their behaviour was common and Milgram also followed the sample up a year later and found that there were no signs of any long term psychological harm”
However, Milgram experiment had become an ethical issue for many people who have taken a look at this experiment. The first ethical issue is that the experiment provided deception; the participant of the experiment actually believed that they were really shocking someone. However, Milgram argue that ““illusion is used when necessary in order to set the stage for the revelation of certain difficult-to-get-at-truths””(). The second ethical issue is the protection of the participants; in the Milgram experiment many participants were put under stressful situation that could’ve potentially caused psychological harm. The participants of the experiment showed signs of tension such as trembling, sweating, stuttering, laughing nervously, biting lips and digging fingernails into their palms. Even some participants had uncontrollable seizures, and many participants pleaded for the experiment to be stop. However, Milgram argue that after the experiment was over he made it very clear that the experiment truly did not hurt anyone and he said that really helped with decreasing their stress level. Milgram also “Participants were assured that their behaviour was common and Milgram also followed the sample up a year later and found that there were no signs of any long term psychological harm”