After reading the article on the Nazi experiments, I decided to read a closely linked experiment conducted after the war that was quite as harsh. The Milgram experiments were a series of social psychology experiments done by Yale University Psychologist Stanley Milgram. Milgram’s experiment was inspired by the Holocaust. His study was done based on the question of whether the millions of accomplices were just merely following orders, despite their deepest moral beliefs, or if they all shared the same immoral beliefs. The experiment was meant to measure the participant’s willingness to obey an authority figure who was instructing them to do acts that conflicted with their conscience. The experiments were done from 1960 to 1963 and were very controversial because some scientists viewed the study as unethical and psychologically abusive. The Milgram experiment motivated many ethics boards to be more thorough when reviewing studies with human subjects.
The subjects were told to ask another subject (an actor) questions and they were to deliver a shock if they answered incorrectly. The shock would increase in voltage each time they answered incorrect up to a max voltage of 450. The subject thought they were shocking another participant in the study and would be asked to continue as they heard screams from the actor that they thought they were delivering shocks to. 65% of the participants administered the final max voltage to the victim, although, many felt uncomfortable doing so. The results from this experiment showed that most people would follow orders to hurt someone even if they personally believe it’s wrong. The article I read argues that the Milgram experiments today would never be approved in front of any ethics board.
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