The Milgram Experiment

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The Milgram Experiment
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The Milgram Experiment

• The Milgram Experiment was a series of social
  psychology experiments conducted in the early
  1960s by Yale University psychologist Stanley
  Milgram.
• The experiments began just 3 months after the
  start of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf
  Eichmann, and were designed to answer the
  question
• Could it be that Eichmann and his million
  accomplices in the Holocaust were just following
  orders?

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The Method of the Experiment

• Subjects were recruited for the Yale study
  through newspaper ads and by direct mail. The
  experiments took place in two rooms in the
  basement of a university building. The
  experiment was advertised as lasting one hour,
  for which the respondents would be paid 4.50
  whether they completed the task or not.
• The participants were men between the ages of 20
  and 50, from all educational backgrounds, ranging
  from an elementary school dropout to participants
  with doctoral degrees.

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The Method of the Experiment

• The role of the experimenter was played by a very
  stern biology teacher dressed in a white
  technicians coat.
• Participants arrived to meet the experimenter, as
  well as another volunteer for the experiment.
  This volunteer was in fact an actor trained to
  play the part.
• The true volunteer and the other volunteer
  were told by the experimenter that they would be
  participating in an experiment to test the
  effects of punishment on learning.

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The Method of the Experiment

• A slip of paper was then give to each of them.
  The true volunteer was led to believe that one
  slip said Learner and the other said Teacher,
  and that both participants had been given the
  slip randomly.
• In fact, both slips said Teacher, but the actor
  claimed to have the slip that said Learner,
  thus guaranteeing that the participant was the
  Teacher.
• At this point, the newly-appointed Teacher and
  Learner were separated into different rooms
  where they could communicate verbally but not
  see each other. (In one version of the
  experiment, the Learner was sure to mention
  casually to the Teacher that he had a heart
  condition.)

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The Method of the Experiment

• To begin, the Teacher was given a sample 45-volt
  shock from an electro-shock generator by the
  Experimenter. The reason for this was to
  demonstrate to the Teacher the nature of the
  shock that the Learner would supposedly receive
  during the experiment each time he gave a wrong
  answer.

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The Method of the Experiment

• The shock generator that the Teacher was told to
  operate had 30 switches in 15 volt increments,
  each switch was labeled with a voltage ranging
  from 15 up to 450 volts.
• Each switch also had a rating, ranging from
  Slight shock to Danger Severe shock. The final
  two switches being labeled XXX.

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The Method of the Experiment

• The subjects of the experiment (ie. the
  Teachers) believed that for each wrong answer,
  the Learner would receive actual shocks. In
  reality, there were no shocks.
• After the Learner was separated from the Teacher,
  the Learner set up a tape recorder integrated
  with the electro-shock generator, which played
  pre-recorded sounds for each shock level.

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The Method of the Experiment

• The Teacher was then given a list of word pairs,
  which he was to teach to the Learner. The
  Teacher began by reading the list of words pairs
  to the Learner. The Teacher would then read the
  first word of each pair, and then read four
  possible answers. The Learner would press a
  button to indicate his response. If the Learner
  was correct, the Teacher would proceed to the
  next word pair. If the answer was incorrect, the
  learner would receive a shock, with the voltage
  increasing with each wrong answer.

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The Method of the Experiment

• At 75 volts the learner would begin to grunt with
  pain. At 120 he would start to shout that the
  shocks were becoming painful. At 150 he would cry
  out that he had enough of the experiment. His
  protestations would turn to agonised screams at
  270 volts.
• At 300 he would shout in desperation that he
  would no longer provide answers (the experimenter
  would inform the teacher that no answer was a
  wrong answer). Beyond 315 volts the learner was
  silent.

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The Method of the Experiment

• At this point, many people indicated their desire
  to stop the experiment and check on the Learner.
  Some test subjects paused at 135 volts and began
  to question the purpose of the experiment.
• Most continued after being assured that they
  would not be held responsible. A few subjects
  began to laugh nervously or exhibit other signs
  of extreme stress once they heard the screams of
  pain coming from the Learner.

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The Method of the Experiment

• If at any time the subject indicated his desire
  to halt the experiment, he was given a succession
  of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this
  order
• Please continue.
• The experiment requires that you continue.
• It is absolutely essential that you continue.
• You have no other choice you must go on.

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The Method of the Experiment

• If the subject still wished to stop after all
  four successive verbal prods, the experiment was
  halted. Otherwise, it was halted after the
  subject had given the maximum 450-volt shock
  three times in succession.

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Predictions

• Before the experiment was conducted, Milgram
  polled 14 Yale senior psychology majors as to
  what the results would be. All respondents
  believed that only a sadistic few (average 1.2)
  would be prepared to give the maximum voltage.
• Milgram also informally polled his colleagues,
  and found that they believed very few subjects
  would go beyond a very strong shock.

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Results

• In Milgrams first set of experiments, 65 (26
  out of 40) of experimental participants
  administered the experiments final 450-volt
  shock, though many were quite uncomfortable doing
  so.
• Everyone paused at some point and questioned the
  experiment, with some even saying that they would
  return the cheque for the money they were paid.
• No participant steadfastly refused to give
  further shocks before the 300-volt level.
• Similar experiments all around the world produced
  similar results.

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Ethics

• Milgrams experiment raised many questions about
  the ethics of scientific experimentation because
  of the extreme emotional stress suffered by the
  participants.
• In Milgrams defense, 84 of former participants
  surveyed later said they were glad or very
  glad to have participated, and 15 chose
  neutral (92 of participants responded).
• However, many people still looked at the
  experiment with great concern about its ethical
  integrity.
• What do you think?

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Milgrams Experiment