The Milgram Experiment: Turning Point In Social Psychology And The Science Of Obedience
The Milgram experiment, as it is now called, was considered a turning point in social psychology and the science of obedience.
In a new study from Poland, a group of researchers wanted to see if the premise held up. That is, 50 years later, would people still respond to an authority figure in the same way as they did in Milgram's original experiment?
"Upon learning about Milgram's experiments, a vast majority of people claim that 'I would never behave in such a manner,'" study co-author Tomasz Grzyb, a social psychologist at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Poland, said in a statement. In other words, people think that they would say no to an authority figure who ordered them to shock a person.
In the new study, the researchers noted that the Milgram experiments had never been conducted in central European countries, which were once a part of the Soviet Union. The leaders of the region placed people there under communist rule and demanded "strict obedience to authority," making the region a good place to test such obedience, the …show more content…
They recruited 40 men and 40 women, who were all unfamiliar with the original experiments. The participants were told that the experiment was focused on "the impact of punishments on learning and memory processes," according to the study.
In the experiment, each person was paired up with an actor and asked to select slips of paper that would dictate each person's role. Both of the slips said "teacher," but in each case, the actor announced that his or her slip said "learner." The learner's job was to memorize certain associations between syllables: The teacher was given syllables to read, and the learner was supposed to reply to each syllable by giving a specific answer.
At this point, the participant was then told that she or he could stop the experiment at any point, but would still be paid for the
In a new study from Poland, a group of researchers wanted to see if the premise held up. That is, 50 years later, would people still respond to an authority figure in the same way as they did in Milgram's original experiment?
"Upon learning about Milgram's experiments, a vast majority of people claim that 'I would never behave in such a manner,'" study co-author Tomasz Grzyb, a social psychologist at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Poland, said in a statement. In other words, people think that they would say no to an authority figure who ordered them to shock a person.
In the new study, the researchers noted that the Milgram experiments had never been conducted in central European countries, which were once a part of the Soviet Union. The leaders of the region placed people there under communist rule and demanded "strict obedience to authority," making the region a good place to test such obedience, the …show more content…
They recruited 40 men and 40 women, who were all unfamiliar with the original experiments. The participants were told that the experiment was focused on "the impact of punishments on learning and memory processes," according to the study.
In the experiment, each person was paired up with an actor and asked to select slips of paper that would dictate each person's role. Both of the slips said "teacher," but in each case, the actor announced that his or her slip said "learner." The learner's job was to memorize certain associations between syllables: The teacher was given syllables to read, and the learner was supposed to reply to each syllable by giving a specific answer.
At this point, the participant was then told that she or he could stop the experiment at any point, but would still be paid for the