The year is 1963.
The location is prestigious Yale.At this time I was earning fifty cents per hour babysitting.
McDonald's was advertising full meals with change back from your dollar.
Imagine seeing the above advertisement - wherein you could earn good
money for participating in an experiment at a prestigious
university, Yale. You would also receive 50 cents for carfare.
You walk in to Yale to be greeted by a professional and stern looking man in a
white coat . There is an unassuming man, dressed in street
clothes, sitting patiently in a waiting room. You are told you will be a participant in a important
scientific experiment on learning and memory - how it is impacted by
pain and punishment.....
You and the street-clothes man from the waiting room draw slips
from a hat. Coincidentally you are the "teacher" and the
other individual is the "learner." The learner is brought to and
securely strapped down to an electric chair. Electrode paste is
applied to the learner's wrist so that he will not suffer blisters and
burns. The experimenter then attached an electrode that is
connected to the shock generator.
You are then introduced to the shock generator. There are
30 switches, each of which represents a slightly higher shock level.
The set-up looks similar to my sketch below:
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Your instructions are as follows: "When the learner gets a wrong
answer, shock him." Critical Thinking: If you were the teacher, would you
administer increasingly painful shocks - to 450 volts?
If the learner pounded on the wall and yelled stop
-
would you administer more shocks if there were no response, as if the
victim had passed out?
Milgram asked this question to 110 psychiatrists, middle-class
adults, and college students. All said NO ONE would go beyond 300 volts.
and most would refuse to go beyond 130 volts. |
Surprisingly, two-thirds delivered potentially fatal electric
shocks to "learners" of word pairs when urged by "professionals"
in white coats.
Of the 40 male subjects:
Only 5 refused to go beyond the
300-volt level (where the learner pounded on the wall)
9
others defied the scientists within the 300-volt range
65%
complied to XXX 450 volts
All "teachers" felt 45 volts & were told
electrode paste avoids "blisters & burns"
"No permanent tissue damage"
Those who did not give in were able to articulate justifications (moral
principles and moral theories) . In other words, they were able to state
why delivering such shocks was wrong. (Stanley Milgram, Obedience to
Authority 1969)
Those who gave shocks lacked resources, theories, to support their
intuitions..
Background Information on the genesis of this
experiment:
Milgram's interest in the systematic destruction of the Jews during
World War II prompted his research.
The German Supreme Court in 1936, "refused to recognize Jews
living in Germany as 'persons' in the legal sense." (Ernst Fraenkel,
The Dual State)
SS physician Fritz Klein compared the destruction of Jews to
removing "a gangrenous appendix from a diseased body" ((Lifton,
The Nazi Doctors)
What has been done to prevent misuse of
future research
participants?
"In 1974 the United States Department
of Health, education, and Welfare established regulations for the
protection of human subjects. These regulations include the creation of
institutional review boards, which are responsible for reviewing
research proposals and ensuring that researchers adequately protect
research participants" (Taking Sides, Eleventh Edition, page 2)
The APA's 1992 Ethical Principles of Psychologists and
Code of Conduct states deception may be used only when the benefits of
the research outweighs the potential harm - and if it is believed
participants would agree to the terms when understanding the benefits.
A debriefing
must follow. Deception can only be utilized when it is necessary
for the integrity of the research
What is one of the most basic principles of the Nuremberg Code?
"The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely
essential." From "The Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg
Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law no. 10, vol 2
(Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949): 181-182.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Quotations regarding experiments
Transcript from participant in experiment taken from
Milgram's Obedience to Authority, An Experimental View,
1942, pages 73-43:
- Teacher: I can't stand it. I'm not going to kill that man in
there. You hear him hollering?
- Experimenter: As I told you before, the shocks may be
painful, but [don't worry, he won't be permanently hurt]
- Learner (screaming): Let me out of here, you have no right
to keep me here. Let me out of here, let me out, my heart's
starting to bother me, let me out!
- Teacher: You see, he's hollering. Hear that? Gee I
don't know.
- Experimenter: The experiment requires...
- Teacher (interrupting): I know it does, sir, but I mean -
huh! He don't know what he's getting in for. He's up to 195
volts!...........
- Teacher: Aw no, I'm not going to kill that man. You mean
I've got to keep going up with the scale? No sir, He's hollering
in there. I'm not going to give him 450 volts.
Excerpt from "Behavioral study of obedience. J.
abnorm. soc. Psychol. 1963, 67, p. 377:
Psychology
Today article
"...an editorial lambasting Milgram and Yale for the
ordeal they put their subjects through. That article marked the
beginning of an enduring ethical controversy stirred up by the
experiments that sometimes overshadowed the substance of the
findings."
Point & Counterpoint:
- Appropriateness of Stress
- Psychological distress exceeded
appropriate limits
- Participants did not experience excessive
stress and were debriefed after the experiment. Stress
was short-lived. They even met with and were reconciled with
the "learner."
- Preventive Measures
- There was no way Milgram could have
anticipated the stress he caused
- Milgram should have known better
- Participants' Reaction
- Most participants spoke well of the
research
- But some experienced long-term stress
| How are frogs like Milgram's test
subjects? In a sense, test subjects are like frogs.
If frogs are placed in boiling water, they will jump out.
If subjects were asked to administer 300 volts or 450 volts
immediately, they probably would not have done so.
Frogs, however, if they are placed in room temperature
water - which is slowly brought to a boil, will stay there
until they die. The slight increments don't bother
them much - in the same way that the Milgram test subjects
could cope with slight increments of voltage.
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____ _______
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Questions to discuss from Milgram experiment
- What activities
should be and not be allowed in research studies?
- Does the
search for knowledge always justify such "costs" to subjects?
- When does the
means justify the end?
- Who should
decide such issues?
-
Consider whether the
Milgram Learning Experiment experiment is justifiable:
From a utilitarian perspective, would more people stand to benefit
from the experiment that the number of test subjects?
From a Kantian perspective, it is never justifiable to reduce a
person to a "means." A person is a kingdom of ends.
- Should
knowledge from Milgram's experiment be used, or is this complicitous?
Some ethicists hold that whatever is learned through
torturous/unethical means (even the creation of beneficial
medicine) should not be used, otherwise one is guilty of
complicity. Keep in mind when Eichmann was asked if he were
complicit in the extermination of millions of Jews, he replied, "I
did what I legally had to do."
LINKS
Milgram,
Stanley Short Biography from About.com
http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/general/bldef_milgramstanley.htm?terms=%22Stanley+Milgram%22
StanleyMilgram.com
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| Kitty Genovese Story |
| At 3:20 A.M. in a middle-class
neighborhood Queens, New York, Kitty was returning home from
work as a bar manager. She notice a man following her, so
she headed to the police call box.
She did not reach the call box in time & was stabbed. Kitty
yelled loudly enough to wake 38 people. One man yelled
"Let that girl alone!" No one else did anything.
The attacker, somewhat taken aback by the yell and by the
lights going headed towards his car.. A few minutes later he
returned to find Kitty staggering toward her apartment and stabbed
her again. Kitty yelled, "I'm dying." The attacker
left.
The attacker went to his car & drove away, only to return
for the third time. This time, he finally killed her.
A full half-hour passed from the first to the third attack.
Police were called later and arrived within half-hour.
Questions for Discussions
- Are you surprised by the actions of the
bystanders? Why or why not?
- What does this true story tell us about the erosion of personal
responsibility and the treating of others with utmost
Kantian respect ?
- Does morality imply more than just not being cruel, but also
helping others in desperate need - at least when this can be done
with minimum inconvenience like a phone call?
|
Interesting Related Information for a future lecture
Influence at work (http://www.influenceatwork.com/
presents the following
In Texas, a man in jeans & sneakers crossed the street when the
light was red. Few followed.
The same man was dressed in a spiffy suit, polished shoes.. and
there was a 350% increase in the number of people that followed him.
Veteran groups get a 16% return in request for money in mail..
When stickets are added, the return rate is 35%/.
Why?
Because people have been trained to give back, to return a kindness
What else sells?
Limited time offers.
People love to get what they can't - what won't be available,
what there is less of or a special edition of
Taser Guns shoot 50,000 volts. On thanksgiving week,
2005, a bystander was shot with a Taser by Manchester Police &
is suffering damage in his arm.
Were they like college students with "inconsistent informational
assumption" on homosexuality, pornography...
Solid critical theory is needed to "clarify, critically analyze and
rank the moral concerns." Theories offer guidance, a framework
to identify contradictions and conflicts" (Boss 2)
It's the current more than the voltage that will kill you
Voltage makes it hurt & current will kill you
Voltage is potential energy
Current is the flow of electrons
DC current goes in one direction so people survive this
AC current , even if low is dangerous - AC will go back & forth
in your heart
You can lick the top of a 9-volt battery
If you lick the positive & negative buttons together, it will
tingle. Your saliva is an electrolitic solution/ That would be DC.
Batteries are DC
Wall outlets are AC
90% of adult Americans, while they "acknowledge universal moral
principles such as equality, believe that for the most part, that
morality is relative to or created by society"
(Boss 4)
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