Emperor1956
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Joined: 11/7/2005
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JohnW, and all: People always talk about Milgram, but few have really looked at his work. There is much more to the Milgram experiments. While it surprised many that good old middle class, white Americans c. 1965 (John, they weren't very "upper class" -- drawn from the working communities around Yale) would shock some unknown person into unconciousness because they were told "you must finish the experiment" by a lab-coat wearing "scientist", there were some key additional findings:
Proximity to the victim made a huge difference. If the subject receiving the shocks was in another location and the "experimenter" (the actual subject, as both the "victim" and the "scientist" were paid actors) only heard them, the experimenter was much more likely to shock into the danger zone. Put a window between experimenter and victim (so that the experimenter could see and hear the results of the shock), and the experimenter stopped sooner. Put them in the same room, even less progression and finally, make the experimenter touch the victim to administer the shock, and the experiment rarely got beyond the first steps of shock intensity.
Also, Milgram suggested that certain types of people were far more resistant to continuing the experiment. This served as a basis for later experiments involving damage to unknown, distant victims, where it was shown that people with families made more careful decisions, and when their families were in close proximity, the decisions were even more careful.
There is an excellent film featuring Milgram that is now widely available (for years it was suppressed). Also, of course, the famous later Stanford experiments in which 1/2 of a class were made "prison guards", with fairly horrific effect. And those who posted re: the need to run these sorts of experiments past an IRB (Institutional Review Board) for ethical purposes are right -- I'd like to think it is because we've learned something in 40+ years about the ethics of education and research.
E.
Edited to add: I may not have made it clear, but the Milgram experiments had NOTHING to do with masochism or sadism.
< Message edited by Emperor1956 -- 1/6/2007 2:51:11 PM >
_____________________________
"When you wake up, Pooh," said Piglet, "what's the first thing you say?"
"What's for breakfast? What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?"
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said.
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A maso in the making? - 
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