The Evil in Human Behavior

The Evil in Human Behavior Teachers, police officers, doctors, and the president are examples of authority figures in our society. It is human behavior that normal individuals follow the orders of their authority figure, whether it be a student following the classroom rules made by a teacher or supervisor ordering his/her employees. It is natural instinct for humans to do what they are told by the people who are above them. In some cases, obeying the authority figure can turn into a frightening thought. Meaning, anyone can easily be influenced to kill someone else. Dr. Milgram’s experiments on the obedience of authority prove that an authority figure can get someone below them to kill.

Dr. Milgram took unsuspecting university students and studied them to test human behavior’s obedience to authority. Milgram focused on the students he categorized as learners and tested how far they would go before they would stop putting discomfort unto another human being. The experiment showed that normal people without any sort of anger towards the individual could cause harm or cause injure to another human being. Migram repeated his experiments numerous times and they all came to the same conclusion that people respond to authority figure.

In today’s society, it is thought that the Nazi SS officers were full of evil. Most people dread the horrific killings that were done in Nazi, Germany. However, people do not realize that anyone can be influenced to kill just like the officers in Nazi Germany. It is a scary thought to believe that any normal human being could cause harm or death to another human being without feeling any sort of anger or animosity. Although one may have no harsh feelings towards anyone, a higher authority can influence someone to harm another human being because it is also human behavior to want to please those above them.

Responding to an authority figure can get out of hand. Ordinary people would invoke harm towards another