Milgram's Experiment

Discovery Channel's Discovery (Why doesn't this have a trope page yet?) recreated Milgram's Experiment with 11 people.

77% still went all the way with Im Just Following Orders

However when they added a plant as a "partner" who left, both people also quit.

It seems even to this day we have not learned a thing. 11 people may not be as much, but its still telling.

If this is the electroshock thing, I was just watching that.

Yes. Its a recreation of the (in)famous Milgram's experiment, which showed that even under the non threatening insistence of a superior/expert, people will torture another.

It's been demonstrated that graduate students can be told "This is a container of acid. Stick your hand into it," and they'll do it. (For the record, it was acid—they were made to wash their hands afterwards. If I was in the experiment, however, I'd probably assume it wasn't acid, and furthermore, I'd assume I wouldn't get paid unless I stuck my hand in. I think the Milgram experiment runs on similar principles.)

Nah. That to me sounds more like "Theres no way they'd actually use acid in this experiment"

^ That's pretty much my point—the 77% were probably thinking "if I'm being told to keep pushing the button, there must not be a worry of permanent damage." (After all, if there was a worry of permanent damage, the scientists would get their asses sued off.)

edited 30th Oct '11 7:29:02 PM by feotakahari

Hmm, if I recall correctly in the Milgram experiment this was accounted for by telling the test-subjects they would be administering harmful shocks and even got actors to cry out in pain and such. Test subjects would continue to do as they were told.

The special I was just watching chalked the slight decrease in test subjects willing to keep doing it to the variance in culture between the two batches of test subjects.

In the '50s, people were jaded to violence by war, and didn't much care. Today, people are well aware of concepts like "liability," and may not want to risk that there is, in fact, a person on the other end of things.

Kind of sad, actually...

I'm more surprised they found 11 people who hadn't heard of the Milgram experiment in the first place. Isn't it pretty common knowledge now?

And if any of those subjects had recognized the experiment, they might have had a little fun playing mind games with the experimenter.

"Oh I'm sorry my hand just slipped. I didn't mean to administer a 450 volt shock instead of a 10 volt shock. I'll do it right next time— *zap* whoops!"

I've actually never heard the name, but I do know the experiment.

Common knowledge for nerds is certainly not common knowledge of everyone.

I checked the other wiki and it seems I misremembered the "told they were harmful" part...

But:

Mankind, I am dissapoint.

Were the people in that experiment aware that they were actually going to be shocking the dog, or that it would be that severe? When people cried, was it after they realized what they did or beforehand but did it anyway?

Just some questions. Another one is how many of those people were dog owners/liked dogs. And if the experimenters at all were punished for facilitating dog abuse (and whose puppy was it?).

I'm kind of surprised that, with the invention of hidden cameras, they didn't have a premade recording of the guy getting "shocked" to show when they did it.

So it was audio cues AND visual.

Maybe seeing the guy suffer effects things. We are disconnected from people we dont see.

Well, at least it shows how powerful one voice of dissent can be.

How does it do that?

The addition of the dissenting plant. Which was demonstrated even better in a variant on the line-length experiment, now that I think on it.

edited 30th Oct '11 9:05:05 PM by DomaDoma

Meh... I'd believe that if they had another dissenting plant who was punished for declining...

People use the "just following orders" bit, out of fear of reprisal for not following orders... When someone says "no" and nothing happens, others will do so as well...

Edit: It just doesn't really prove anything in that regards... Not to me, anyway...

edited 30th Oct '11 9:09:23 PM by Swish

Oy, any graduate students in psych here who want to try that? Milgram is overplayed in college, but I can't think it's the only thing you could do that incorporates authority, questionable acts, and the prospect of punishment. And I would dearly like to see that.

The problem with that is, at my Uni at least, the majority of people who take part in Psych studies are... other Psych students. Who learn about the Milgram experiment in basically their first week, and so would for the most part be completely aware of what is going on.

Yeah, not doing electroshocks per se would be a pretty thin veneer for psych students. Is there any way to do such a thing as a field study?

edited 30th Oct '11 11:04:15 PM by DomaDoma

Scariest thing is that this one knows that she'll go along with it.

And no, she never considered "following orders" a valid defence

This one is a bastard. As are most people

A lot of studies advertise for participants, but generally they need to have some kind of payoff (As in, participants are paid to take part), and they still tend to be mostly Uni students participating.

Then it's down to luck of the draw as to how many and how well informed participants are.

Vinegar is mostly water, with 5% to 8% acetic acid, and of course it is harmless.

I actually sort of remember (from Cracked, perhaps?) that some time ago, a typo caused someone's member being washed in acetic acid at a 50% (instead of 5%) concentration as part of some sort of routine procedure. Amputation ensued.