Milgram Studies

When reading the Perils of obedience by Stanley Milgram I was shocked to find such high number of individuals who delivered the maximum amount of punishment (450 volts). Watching it in class on Monday was even scarier, seeing average people who seemed quite intelligible and kind follow through with the experimenter's demands. The experiment made me wonder what kind of results it would produce today. Would average Americans in today's society be just as obedient as Milgram's 1960s participants? Searching around the web I found a recent replication of Milgram's obedience study. The experiment obviously had some differences from the original because Milgram's study had many ethical concerns. Some changes included the reduction of volts to 150 and intense screening for the participants to avoid any negative reactions to the experiment. I thought for sure there would be better results however the participants shocked the learners to the fullest at relatively the same rate as they did 40 years ago. What makes people so inclined to comply with orders, even if hurting another individual is involved in the process? Are we incapable of escaping these deviant characteristics? A big thing with these experiments is the loss of responsibility, I think the participants didnt feel responsible for there actions and placed the blame on the experimenter who was giving the instructions. So one step forward from leaving these obedient ways would be to realize when you're responsible for certain actions and act in a moral way to prevent yourself from getting caught up in following unjust orders.

Here is a link to the website that talks about the replication of Milgram's study:

http://psychology.about.com/b/2008/01/08/researchers-replicate-milgrams-classic-obedience-study.htm

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