The Milgram Experiment

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1. In the 1960s, a psychologist named Stanley Milgram carried out a series of experiments on obedience. The studies explored whether people would perform an act that conflicted with their sense of right and wrong if they were instructed to do ____ by an authority figure. Milgram hoped to understand the apparent willingness of ordinary citizens to participate in atrocities such as the concentration camps of World War II. Although the psychologist's results were groundbreaking, some consider the methods ___ _____ they were obtained ____ _____ unethical.

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2. The original experiment involved two researchers and a single male subject who was given the role of "teacher." The subject was _____ to believe that both he and one of the researchers were being investigated in the study. He was informed that the experiment's purpose was to determine the effects of punishments on learning. The subject, acting as the teacher, would give an electric shock of gradually increasing voltage to the "learner" for each question he answered incorrectly. However, no shocks were actually given. Instead, the learner went into another room and set up a tape recorder that played groans and screams in response to the increasing shock levels. Toward the end of the series of shocks, the learner would pound on the wall. By the final 450-volt shock, he would become unresponsive. If, after hearing the learner scream, the subject hesitated in applying another electrical charge, the researcher in the room with him would encourage him to continue. If the subject refused to obey, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, it ended after three 450-volt shocks that would, if real, have killed the learner.

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3. The results stunned the psychological community. In Milgram's first round of experiments, 65 percent of the subjects were willing to press the button to give the final shock. Moreover, although many of the participants hesitated for extended periods of time or expressed doubt about what they were doing, no one refused to continue the experiment before 300 volts were applied. In order to better understand these findings, Milgram and other psychologists performed different versions of the study. Most of these variations showed similar results. A later experiment with women instead of men, for example, showed no significant difference in obedience levels. It was learn___, however, that distance between the researcher and the experimental subject could affect the study's results. As the distance between the authority figure and the subject increased, willingness to obey decreased; for example, if the experimenter gave orders over the telephone, the subject was less likely to agree to continue to give the shocks.

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4. Despite the importance of these findings, many have questioned _____ ethics of the experiments. The participants thought they were inflicting pain on other human beings and went through great emotional stress _____ _____ ______. For this reason, the study can be considered inhumane. At the same time, some subjects may not have understood how the experiment actually worked, even after it was over. This means that they may have continued to believe they had applied the electric shocks, making them feel guilty and unhappy in the future. Although many subjects claimed to have been glad to participate in the study, others claimed they had been manipulated by researchers.

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5. Milgram's findings generated a great deal of interest since they were so surprising to both experts and the general population. Over time, however, this interest has been balanced by criticism because many people have come to question whether the methods ____ the psychologist were appropriate for scientific study. The controversy surrounding ________ Milgram was justified in his aims is unlikely ever to be entirely resolved. In the eyes of many researchers, however, the deceit inherent in the experiment makes it an unsuitable model for future experiments on obedience.