Behavioral Study of Obedience by Stanley Milgram (1963)

Overview

Objective: Study of destructive obedience in laboratory setting.
Method: Naive subjects (Ss) were instructed to administer electric shocks to a victim as punishment in a learning experiment context.
Key Finding: A large number of subjects fully obeyed commands, administering the highest level of shock.

Role in Society: Obedience is fundamental in social structures and authority systems.
Historical Context: Reference to atrocities committed under orders (e.g., Nazi Germany).
Dual Nature: Obedience can lead to constructive or destructive outcomes.

Setup: Use of a shock generator with 30 voltage levels (15 to 450 volts) labeled from Slight Shock to Danger: Severe Shock.
Participants: 40 male subjects aged 20-50 from various occupations.
Environment: Conducted at Yale University, involving a teacher (naive subject) and a learner (confederate).
Instructions: Subjects to increase shock level with each wrong answer by the learner.
Breakoff Point: Subjects showed obedience by escalating shock levels until they voluntarily stopped.
Outcome: 26 subjects administered the maximum shock; 14 refused at some point.

Predictions vs. Reality: Contrary to predictions, most subjects continued to the end.
Behavioral Observations: Extreme stress and tension observed in subjects, nervous laughter, and seizures noted.
Disobedience: Subjects who broke off expressed moral conflict and distress.

Mechanisms of Obedience
- Institutional authority (Yale University) lends legitimacy.
- Perceived obligation and commitment to the experiment.
- Ambiguity in moral and ethical limits in the experimental setting.
- The authority vs. personal conscience conflict.
Psychological Insights
- Balance between harming others and obeying authority.
- Rapid onset of conflict and lack of reflection time as stressors.

Philosophical and psychological analyses of authority and obedience (e.g., Arendt, Weber).
Previous studies on authoritarianism and social power.

The study highlights the powerful influence of authority on individual actions, raising important ethical and psychological questions about obedience in structured settings.
Further research is suggested to explore variations and deeper understanding of obedience mechanisms.