The Milgram experiment is one of the most controversial experiments in history. This is mainly focused between obedience to authority and personal conscience.Obedience means compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure. (Experience Sociology.) “Milgram also used the term conformity meaning going along with peers individuals of our own status who have no special right to direct our behavior”.
Twelve normal public members participated on this experiment; the teacher is told to administer an electric shock every time the learner makes a mistake, increasing the level of shock each time. The point of this experiment is to see if they can stop the procedure or to see how far people can go in obeying the professor if it involved harming another person. At some point of the procedure the volunteers didn’t want to go on because they didn’t want to cause pain to the learner, but the experimenter guide told them to continue. Here we can see how power can influence on people. According to “Experience Sociology” power is the ability to bring about an intended outcome, even when opposes by other. In other hand, the teachers’ position shows us an example of powerlessness because even tough they didn’t want to continue they had the sense of following the orders.
In conclusion 9 of 12 participants went all the way to the end. In Milgram original experiment over 65% of people continued to the highest level of 450 volts. This made the social psychologist think that “ In some circumstances violence is absolutely justified because people just follow orders of their superiors” We can see violence in our daily life and people tend to coerce. Coerce means the “force compliance by threatening, intimidating, pressuring, or harming someone”
After watching this video and reading the chapter 5 of “Experience Sociology” makes me think that “we” all the people in the society are likely to follow or obey orders by any authority figure even if some people can cause harm to an innocent human being. Obeying is mostly related to power. Power can occur in smalls groups too, for example“Rewarding Power” is used when the parents have the capacity to control their child’s behavior. “Coercive Power” is another example of power that is seen in today’s society when any authority from a company has the ability to fire a worker if he/she fails below a given level expectation. Even though the world has been revolutionized we are designated to follow instructions from a higher level position person or groups.
