The Milgram Experiment: What Would You Do Under Pressure? - Iconic Psychology Study

Dr Marianne Trent (: 00:00

Would you harm a stranger just because someone in a lab coat told you to in 1961, Stanley Milgram wanted to find out and the results shocked the world, but why was this so important and what does it tell us about human nature today? Hi, I am Dr. Marianne Trent, a qualified clinical psychologist, and today we are diving into one of the most famous and controversial psychology experiments of all time, the Milgram Experiment. This study wasn't just about obedience. It really did force us to confront uncomfortable truths about human nature. Why do ordinary people follow orders even when those orders are harmful? And of course, what does this mean for how we navigate authority in our modern lives Today? In this episode, I'll take you through what happened during the experiment, why it sparked so much debate, and what lessons still apply today. Let's dive in.

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Picture this, you are in a lab at Yale University in the early 1960s. You've signed up for a study on learning and memory or so you think, and when you arrive, you are paired with another participant again. So you think and you have a bit of a lucky dip choosing pieces of paper to decide who will be the learner and who will be the teacher. In reality though, of course, the draw is completely rigged. The person you are paired with is in on the whole thing there, an actor working with the experimenter to see what you will do. You are both in separate rooms, so you can't directly see one another for the duration of the experiment, and that is one of the key pieces of information. It's also a key deception. So your role as the teacher is to ask the learner questions. If they get an answer wrong, you are instructed to administer an electric shock, and the crux of the whole experiment is that the shocks start small, but increase with each mistake. The machine in front of you that you are asked to use to dish out these punishments has labels which range from slight shock to danger, severe shock, and finally X, x, X.

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What we know as we look back is that no shocks were administered, but the people who were acting as the teachers in this case, you would not know that. You'd think this was the real deal. At first, the learner's mistakes are met with kind of mild discomfort really, but as the shocks increase, so does their reaction and understandably so, you start to hear groans and then screams and then pounding on the wall next to you. Eventually there's silence and you are told by the experiment organisers that the silence means they're not responding, and you should treat it as a wrong answer if you hesitate. The experimenter who is dressed in a lab coat urges you to continue saying phrases like The experiment requires that you continue or you have no other choice, you must go on. Wow, what would you do? So here is what Milgram found.

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65% of participants delivered the highest available voltage shock of what they believed was 450 volts, even though sometimes they were visibly distressed whilst pressing those buttons, many people expressed discomfort, some even protested about doing it, but the majority obeyed that authority figure in the white coat. This experiment revealed something profound. The power of perceived authority. Ordinary people under the right conditions can and do perform actions that go against their moral beliefs simply because they're told to. The Milgram experiment has become a cornerstone for psychology, but it's not without its controversy. Why it matters is that this study showed how deeply ingrained obedience to authority is. It wasn't about bad people doing bad things. It was about just normal individuals like you and me prioritising instructions over their moral conscience and compass. So what psychological mechanisms have been going on? Here we've got something called diffusion of responsibility.

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That's where participants feel that the experimenter was ultimately responsible for their outcomes and not themselves. This means that they don't really feel like it was their choice. They were simply doing what they were told to do. It's what we understand with the term of cognitive dissonance, how we make ourselves feel okay with an idea that we are not actually that comfortable with. It's the adjustments we make to make that lay flat for us. We've also got the power of authority to consider the lab coat, the setting, the professional tone, the university building, and all of these elements combined really did reinforce the legitimacy of that authority figure. Ethical controversy is a massive one. Because Milgram's study also raised significant ethical questions. Participants were deceived into thinking they were causing real and actual harm leading to extreme stress and emotional conflict. This study alongside others helped shape modern ethical guidelines for psychological research, including the necessity of what we know as informed consent and debriefing.

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It's why if you are doing any research in psychology these days, that you have to complete a tonne of paperwork and attend ethics panels and think about all of the possible pros and cons of people taking part. It is why pretty often ethics panels say no to research proposals. Let's have a think about the specific time that the Milgram experiment took place. So of course, it was the 1960s and it was deeply influenced by the historical context of the Second World War. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, society was really trying to grapple with understanding how soldiers and in fact, ordinary citizens could commit such atrocities simply by being ordered to by the authoritarian regimes. The Nuremberg Trials highlighted how just following orders was often used as a defence which raised complex moral questions about obedience and personal accountability. Even in more recent conflicts, soldiers in combat zones face moral dilemmas that echo the themes of Milgram's work.

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How far should one go to follow orders and when does blind obedience cross ethical boundaries? These are questions that we continue to confront in modern times from the military to everyday situations where authority figures wield power over others. So what does this mean for us today? Authority in the modern world is such that one tweet can have monumental consequences in today's connected world. For instance, a recent case saw a woman sentenced to 31 months in prison for a single inflammatory post incited racial hatred. This modern example shows how actions driven by perceived authority or impulsive reactions can spiral into serious repercussions. Reminding us of the key Milgram experiments, lessons about obedience and responsibility, moral dilemmas. Imagine a whistleblower in a company they might know something is wrong, but feel pressured to stay silent because their boss insists that they do. The Milgram experiment helps us to understand the psychological cost of resisting authority and why it's so hard to do critical thinking.

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Milgram's work reminds us to question authority and to think critically about our own actions. Are we acting out of genuine belief or are we just following orders? So what can we learn from the Milgram experiment? It's a sobering reminder of how authority can shape behaviour often in ways we don't expect, but it also gives us the tools to reflect, to question and to stand up for what we know is right. I want to leave you with a question. What would you have done in that situation? Do you think you would have obeyed or would you have resisted? Do let me know in the comments. If you found this video thought provoking. Don't forget to like to subscribe and to share it with others in your network who might also enjoy about learning about the fascinating and sometimes uncomfortable and grizzly truths of real human behaviour.

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