Mini 10: Stanely Milgram’s Obedience Experiment

Imagine walking into a fancy building at a prestigious school to participate in Milgram’s experiment…

There is so much more to be said about Milgram's experiment and larger work in general. However, this episode is just a general overview. Obedience was a topic Milgram long struggled to understand. Like many psychologists in his generation, Milgram sought to fully understand how something like the Holocaust could happen, so that it could be prevented in the future. Although I have a lot of critiques of this particular experiment, I think it is admirable that Milgram was seeking to explain one of the largest atrocities in human history, to give people a sense of understanding in the face of senseless tragedy.

References:

Greenwood, J. (2018, Jul 24). How would people behave in Milgram’s experiment today? Behavioral Scientist. https://behavioralscientist.org/how-would-people-behave-in-milgrams-experiment-today/#:~:text=The%20Original%20Experiment,of%20electric%20shocks%E2%80%94affected%20learning.

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. The Journal of abnormal and social psychology, 67(4), 371.

Room, C. (2015). Rethinking one of psychology’s most infamous experiments. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/01/rethinking-one-of-psychologys-most-infamous-experiments/384913/