The Infamous Miligram Obedience Experiment

Xin Lei Ni

     The Milgram Obedience Experiment was a series of tests conducted in the 1960s by Yale University psychologist, Stanley Milgram. After hearing testimonies of Nazis blaming their heinous acts on the theory of “compliance”, Milgram became curious about the power of authority on an individual's actions. He founded the Milgram Experiments—a controversial study resulting in profound impacts on the field of psychology.

     In one of his most famous variations of the Milgram experiment, Stanley recruited 40 male participants through newspaper ads and offered them each $4.50 for participating. Milgram then designed a frightening fake shock generator with a range of 15-450 volts. The power settings included: “slight shock,” “moderate shock,” “danger: severe shock,” and an intimidating final shock of “XXX”. Also, Stanley stationed a “scientist” in each room; the scientist, dressed to resemble authority, was tasked with urging the teacher on throughout the experiment.

     Participants were assigned the role of teacher in this experiment, managing a “student” in a neighboring room. Each time the students answered a question incorrectly, the teacher administered a shock. However, the teachers were unaware that the shock machine was fake. While the participants of the experiments believed they were delivering painful shocks to other people, the hired students were pretending to be in pain. 

     As the voltage level increased, the student would plead for the shock to stop. The teachers (participants) were urged to continue by the scientists. As the settings reached 300 volts, banging and demands of freedom would be heard from the students. Stanley monitored the impact this implied pain caused to teachers.  

     When the questions were completed, the student remained quiet as the scientist demanded the teacher administer the final shock. At this point, participants were agitated, with many asking to stop. Regardless of their stress, the authority would insist it was essential for them to continue.    In result, Milgram's study showed that 65% of the participants delivered the maximum shock. 

     Though valuable insight on the concept of “compliance” was gained by the Miligram Experiment, its ethicality and accuracy is questioned. Many participants were unaware the shock was fake and experienced extreme anxiety during the tests. Factors like impressions of Yale, competence of the experimenter, and the presence of others were all taken into account when seeing the high levels of compliance.