The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. They measured the willingness of study participants, men from a diverse range of occupations with varying education levels, to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment in which they had to administer electric shocks to a "learner.” These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real. Under what situations would you follow the authority who ordered actions that went against your conscience? Could you have administered these electrical shocks, even if they were for experimental purposes? Why or why not?

Ciccarelli: Psychology_5 (5th Edition)
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The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. They measured the willingness of study participants, men from a diverse range of occupations with varying education levels, to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment in which they had to administer electric shocks to a "learner.” These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.

  • Under what situations would you follow the authority who ordered actions that went against your conscience?
  • Could you have administered these electrical shocks, even if they were for experimental purposes? Why or why not?
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