Milgram Experiment Analysis

After watching the Milgram experiment and the abuse that occur in Abu Ghraib prison. It is clear that leadership roles and authority position can both influence people to do thing that are harmful and bad to others. Leadership focuses on gaining people to follow them and is more based on free will. While authority has the power to tell people what to do. In the Milgram experiment many people back up why they continue administering shocks by stating, “Because an authority figure was telling them what to do and he was the expert” (Short, 2013). In the video a researcher of the Milgram experiment explained that people do what authority figures tells them to do because we are trained to follow authority figures and in the Milgram experiment the
In addition, when leadership positions or authority roles are present it can motivate people to cross certain ethical lines. For example people were more likely to administer a high dangerous level of shock rather than to stop the experiment when they knew it was not right. In addition, people continue shocking the individual even when the participant said that they had enough and were done. Many people did not question the high voltage of shock and if they did the authority figure in the room influence them to continue administering shocks. The Milgram experiment goes along with ethics, because leadership roles and authority figures can push people to not use their ethical judgement during these situations and rely on putting the responsibility on the authority or leader rather than themselves. For examples in the Abu Ghraib prison military workers misused their authority roles by using abusive methods toward the prisoners. Furthermore, military worker supported their abusive and humiliation methods by stating “I was just doing my job” (Short, 2013). An ex-military worker in the Abu Ghraib prison supported what she did by “She did not feel like they were doing things that they were not supposed to do because they were being told to do them” (Short, 2013). When roles of authority or leader positions are involved in can cause people to obey orders and do things
If the authority figure it the authority figure told them what to do then the responsibility and outcome would not be on them. By thinking in this way it allowed people to obey the expert figure and military commander to do unethical things. Another reason is that power in present in authority and leadership positions that can influence normal people and trained military workers to community unethical things, because the power of position allows them too. Also, authority roles can cause people to not question orders and do what their told because we are trained to followed people that are higher in command than