The Controversial Milgram's Obedience Study

Nicks, Korn, and Mainieri, (1997) explained deception as the explicit misstatement of fact and intentional and explicit misrepresentation. Deception is highly frowned upon within society as it involves actively misleading an individual or group. In psychology, multiple studies have used deception in order to attain information. One such example is the controversial Milgrams Obedience study. Likewise, deception, using different editorial methods in reality television is an important factor to try and retain viewers. However, this can have an adverse effect on society. As Albert Bandura (1977) has explained, humans learn through observation. Thus, the observation of the actions and attitudes deemed appropriate within reality television
Milgram misled participants into believing the experiment was studying effects of punishment on learning, the participants were misled to agree to terms that had not been fulfilled. Although the participants were debriefed, it was not enough to hinder psychological damage that affected participants. Participants were made to believe that they were truly inflicting pain on the learners and were purposely placed in a position of great anxiety. Believing they had hurt or even killed the confederate some participants suffered mental stress. Deception used in Milgram’s experiment caused participants to question their characteristics, morals, deeming themselves in negative light, questioning their ethical integrity (Baumrind, 1985). Secondly, one must understand mundane realism, the effectiveness of this study being superficially constructed relatable to everyday life with regards to collectivism and individualistic societies, is questionable. Individualistic societies are societies in which individuals thinking, working habit and actions are for their individual self. Collectivist societies are based around constrains of actions and impulses inclined to hurt others or violate social expectations. Conducted in America, an individualistic society (Hoefstede (year)), the general findings of the experiment cannot be generalized to the greater population. In essence, it is only applicable for that culture and
A notorious procedure known as Franken biting, the alteration of actual verbal conversations which occurred (Arnovitz, 2004). From this, the audience views what the directors chose to depict, creating deceptive interpretations. These factors influence the understanding of human behaviour and provide a false impression of what is considered adequate within society. For instance, the understanding of lust confused with love, shallow popularity as true friendship and the material success of happiness (Wyatt & Bunton, 2012). Furthermore Albert Bandura (1961) proposed a Social Learning Theory to explain the effect of violent media such as reality television on behaviour. Bandura explained that people learn through observation. When deception is used in order to entertain public, the entertainment can be of individuals who are quarrelling verbally or physically. Those whom are unable to differentiate between fiction and non-fiction feel this is how one ought to act within society which can be seen from Tiffany Eunick case. Tiffany Eunick was killed by a13 year old boy who was unable to understand the deception used in reality television where disputing conflicts through violence solved issues. Comstock and Paik (1991) suggested that media is most effective in promoting aggression when aggression is shown to succeed; additionally Joy Et al (1977) found an increase in