Milgram Experiment

Stanley Milgram believed that humans have a tendency to obey other people who are in position of authority over them even if, in obeying, they violate their personal codes of moral and ethical behavior. Milgram believed that in some situations, the human tendency to obey is so deeply ingrained and powerful that it cancels out a person’s ability to behave morally, ethically, or even sympathetically. In 1963 Milgram carried out an experiment. He hypothesized that individuals who would never intentionally cause someone physical harm would do so if ordered by a powerful authority figure.
To carry out the experiment, Milgram designed a shock generator- a large electronic device with 30 switches labeled with voltage levels from 30 volts increasing at 15-volt intervals to 450 volts. These switches were labeled in groups that described their level of shock: slight shock, moderate shock, severe shock, etc. This machine was actually a simulated shock generator, and no one actually received any shocks. The subjects of this study were 40 males between the ages of 20 and 50 who were recruited through newspaper ads and direct-mail solicitation asking for participants for a psychology study in Yale University. There were 15 skilled or unskilled workers, 15 businessmen, and 9 professional men. The subjects were paid $4.50 and were told that this payment was simply for coming to the laboratory. In addition to the subjects, there were two other key participants: a confederate in the experiment posing as another subject, and an actor playing the part of the experimenter. When the subject arrived at the Yale laboratory, he was seated next to the confederate. Then the experimenter explained to the subjects that this was a study on the effect of punishment on learning (which is obviously a cover story). Both the subject and the confederate drew pieces of paper to determine who would be the teacher and who would be the learner. Each time, the subject became the teacher and the