"Don’t you see, we SS men were not supposed to think about these things; it never even occurred to us. We were all so trained to obey orders without even thinking that the thought of disobeying an order would simply never have occurred to anybody, and somebody else would have done just as well if I hadn’t. I never gave much thought to whether it was wrong. It just seemed a necessity”.
This was part of the defense of Rudolf Höss, former commandant at Auschwitz, during the Nuremberg War Trials in 1946. The judges later rejected this defense, claiming that every individual is responsible for their actions. But is that true? This question interested a man named Stanley Milgram. The assistant professor at Yale University wanted to know how far people would go to obey an authority figure. So in 1961, he conducted the first of 18 experiments that we now know as the Milgram Experiments.
With an ad in a newspaper, he found 40 men between the ages of 20 and 40 willing to participate. They drew straws to find their role in the experiment: teacher or learner. This selection was fake, so all men were assigned to be the teachers. In a different room was a paid actor, the learner, sitting in what appeared to be an electric chair. The teacher and learner could hear but not see each other. The experiment required the two to do a memory test in which the learner was questioned about word pairs.
The experiment also involved an experimenter who instructed the participant to administer "electric shocks" to the learner whenever his answers were incorrect. These shocks increased in intensity up to 450 volts, which increased the expressed but faked pain by the actor/learner. Surely some of the participants wanted to stop the experiment but were encouraged to continue by phrases such as "Please continue" and "You have no other choice but to continue".
Milgram and his students hypothesized that less than 3% of the participants would shock to the maximum of 450 V. In reality, 65% obeyed until the end, despite their ability to stop the experiment whenever they wanted. Because of this negative surprise, the primary goal shifted to identifying factors influencing obedience. The appearance of the experimenter was discovered to be a factor. When the experimenter gave directions over the phone or did not wear a uniform, the percentage of individuals who obeyed dropped to 20%. This helped conclude that most people will only obey the orders of someone they regard as an authoritative figure.
Milgram later explained the participants' behavior with his agency theory. According to this thesis, two states of mind determine if you are obedient. Generally, we operate in an autonomous state where we control our actions and take responsibility. However, there is a second state, the agentic state, where we see ourselves as agents of an authority figure and no longer as individuals. To enter this state, we have to believe that the orders come from someone who seems qualified to make the right decisions and who will take responsibility for any consequences.
Of course, we must question the validity of Milgram's results and face the criticism of his experiment. First, the participants were self-selected males who knew it was an experiment. Secondly, the orders given were not mundane and more suitable in a military context since Milgram was interested in how far one would follow orders to inflict harm on others. Other ethical criticisms included the stress on the participants, who believed they had harmed another human.
Despite its ethical problems, this experiment has a significant impact on psychology by demonstrating that people are willing to obey orders, even if they are against their morals. Nowadays, the Milgram Experiment is one of the most popular psychology studies on obedience, encouraging us to question the motives behind our actions.
Resources:
1. "Stanley Milgram." Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stanley-Milgram.
2. McLeod, Saul. "Milgram Experiment." Simply Psychology, 2017, https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html
3. "Obeying Orders." Facing History and Ourselves, https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/obeying-orders
4. "The Milgram Experiment." CommonLit, UNC Pembroke, CommonLit | The Milgram Experiment (uncp.edu)
5. "Milgram Experiment" (PDF). EdMotivate, http://www.edmotivate.com/uploads/4/7/6/4/47648491/milgram_experiment.pdf
6. "Milgram's Experiment on Obedience to Authority." University of California, Berkeley, Milgram's Experiment on Obedience to Authority (berkeley.edu)
7. "Milgram Experiment: Overview, History, & Controversy." Verywell Mind, Milgram Experiment: Overview, History, & Controversy (verywellmind.com)
8. "Stanley Milgram." Department of Psychology, Harvard University,