Sample Essay On Stanley Milgram’s Theory Of Obedience

Stanley Milgram performed groundbreaking research investigating obedience and the power of authority to produce obedience. Milgram stated that obedience is a principle part of living in a social world, and that structures of authority are necessities of social living (“Study of Obedience” 371). Although everyone must respond to authority figures in some way, Milgram’s theory was instigated by the millions of Jews who were killed in the holocaust as a result of following orders. He clarified that obedience did not necessarily include aggressive behavior, but his experiments explored what people will do, and how far they will go, if told to (Milgram, “Study of Obedience” 371). In effect, was there something specific to Nazi soldiers that made them obey and perform horrific acts, or were they not so different from regular people? The results of his studies were completely unexpected, and showed how strong obedient tendencies were. Milgram experimented with white men in the U.S. from a range of backgrounds and occupations; and over half of these men willingly administered what they thought were dangerous and severe shocks to someone who they thought was hurt and no longer responsive because the experimenter told them they must (“Study of Obedience” 376).
Milgram developed his theory of obedience based on these experiments, and it has been so widely discussed and referenced that Blass claimed that it “is clearly among the best-known and most widely discussed work in the social sciences” (957). Milgram stated that his experiments showed how ingrained obedience is, and that a significant amount of people will be obedient to what they are told to do by legitimate authorities regardless of their moral standards, or what it is they are told to do (“Conditions of Obedience” 75). Milgram proposed the possibility that the type of person that this democratic society produces cannot be depended on to protect citizens from inhumane treatment when ordered by authority (“Conditions of Obedience” 75). Milgram explained that his experiments forced men to be in a public conflict in which they had to respond to competing demands, and that this was similar to situations of military personnel (“Study of Obedience” 178). Whether the participants broke off the experiment or kept shocking the victim, neither option offered a satisfactory solution. This is similar to soldiers who must be punished for insubordination or perform acts against their conscious. The men in Milgram’s experiments were paid for participation, but it was made clear to them that they would be paid simply for showing up regardless of their performance. However, Milgram suggested that this may have made participants feel some obligation, and the experiments took place at Yale University which is a well-respected institution (“Study of Obedience” 177).
Milgram’s proof of the strength of obedience was that it caused men to abandon the fundamental moral standards that participants had been taught since childhood about not harming others against their will (“Study of Obedience” 177). Participants did respond with enormous amounts of tension that resulted in trembling, sweating, groaning, and even seizures on a couple of occasions. Milgram said that this extreme tension was as unexpected as the results, and that it had rarely ever been seen in social psychological studies (“Study of Obedience” 175). Milgram stated that participants become “enmeshed in a social structure” and mentally place responsibility for their actions on the authority that commands them (“Conditions of Obedience” 73). Although Milgram’s theory of obedience was based on experiments that were performed decades ago, research continues to support it and produce similar results (Blass, 972).

Works Cited

Blass, Thomas. “The Milgram Paradigm After 35 Years: Some Things We Now Know About Obedience to Authority.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 29.5 (1999): 955-978. Print.
Milgram, Stanley. “Behavioral Study of Obedience.” The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67.4 (1963): 371-378. Print.
Milgram, Stanley. “Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority.” Human Relations 18.1 (1965): 57-76. Print.