The Milgram Experiment: Obedience to Authority

Are ordinary people able to do terrible things? And if so, how many would give high electric shocks to an innocent student, just because they are following an order? To find out, Stanley Milgram, a young psychologist at Yale University, conducted a clever, but controversial, experiment that changed our understanding of human behavior forever.

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COLLABORATORS
Script: Jonas Koblin
Artist: Pascal Gaggelli
Voice: Mithril
Coloring: Nalin
Editing: Peera Lertsukittipongsa
Production: Selina Bador
Proofreading: Susan
Sound Design: Miguel Ojeda

SOUNDTRACKS
Toys Are Alive - Studio Le Bus
Terror Avenue - Jack Pierce

DIG DEEPER with these top videos, games and resources
Neuro Milgram – Your brain takes less ownership of actions that you perform under coercion by the British Psychological Society

Ethical Issues in the Milgram Experiment - an overview on Prezi

Watch Milgram Experiment 1962 Full Documentary

SOURCES
Milgram, S. (2009). Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (Harper Perennial Modern Thought) (Reprint ed.). Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

CLASSROOM EXERCISE

CHAPTER
00:00 Intro to The Milgram Experiment
00:22 Stanley Milgram
00:48 The Milgram Experiment
03:50 Milgram's finding
04:35 What do you think?
04:56 Patrons' credit
05:06 Ending

#psychology #stanleymilgram #themilgramexperiment #sproutslearning

[sprouts]

Support us to make more video on the experiment at www.patreon.com/sprouts

[raymk]

By doing this experiment, Milgram actually taught us how to be aware of our evil and weaknesses, and at least, give me a chance to not follow orders blindly

[TheRealBlueBeanie]

One participant was an electrician, and cried and straight up left the room, refusing to inflict the harm he once endured.

[Subparanon]

It takes a kind of interior stubborn-ness in order to stand up for what you believe in. You have to be the kind of person that values what they think about themselves more than what others think of them because the social pressure to go with the crowd can be very hard to ignore unless you are prepared to be disliked and to actively rock the boat and be a vocal minority when you see people doing something you consider wrong. That's step 1. Step 2 is you have to ignore the temptation to abuse power. That is a little easier if your have a strong moral code, however your mind can trick you into thinking you're doing something for moral reasons, when the reality is you're doing them for selfish ones. So you have to constantly second guess your motivations, look for your own bias, and where possible, defer some of your authority to others or at least allow them to critique your use of power so you can avoid falling into the trap of "I'm doing this for the greater good, not because I enjoy it (wrings hands together and starts drooling)"

[aquelaquelaquelaquel]

You skipped parts of the experiment. The subjects were diff ages (starting young, 18 yrs to older 35 yrs old). The older ones were prone to refuse to go all the way of the experiment and even quit (something around 30-40%, if not more) but the younger ones "blame" that the "authority" made them do it and they had no choice. This is why the Army is always looking to very young adults to have them join in, because they follow orders and think of consequences less. The Israelis army is a bit different, they give room to decision on the squad -- so it's a different psychological framework.

[freesk]

Thank you so much for publicizing this. The more people know about this, the better our future will be.

[DeKevers]

This gave me a brand new insight on liberation and critical theory. It's this awareness we require to function as human beings.

[dn]

Ever since I was young, I was called a "problem child", if that's the term for it. Always doing what I thought I should do, not what others tell me, and only obeying when faced with consequences. As I grew up, I no longer felt bad for being like that. They kept calling it "Rebelious", "Different", "Problematic"... All words for something that has only served me well, but happened to be inconvenient to my superiors.

Sure, they may say I've been raised wrong, but if that means that I won't be electrocuting someone against my own judgement, I don't think I want to be raised "right"

[kimberlys.]

Many would say they would never do such a thing. But saying it and actually being in the situation in person are two different things. Human psyche is so interesting

[confusicated]

I remember the Milligram experiment, I witnessed a portion of it on TV and remember thinking at the time: 'What is wrong with these people, why don't they just refuse to continue?' I was just a child at the time but I remember it clearly. Looking back at my childhood I realise now that I had and still have a rebellious streak and a mind of my own that I refuse to hand over to any authority figure. I now witness with despair the sheep-like behaviour of my fellow man and woman. I'll leave you to guess my feelings about our current world-wide political and medical situation...

[johngleason]

Its important to know that this is human nature, so that we can fight against it in ourselves

[Thebingbingbustdown]

so interesting how this experiment was one of the inspirations for the outlast trials. never heard of it until now but it’s so clearly similar. thank you for sharing this

[PhilmannDark]

Today, one of the big traps is computers which are sold or perceived as "authorities". There are many cases today where people were affected by wrong decisions which were explained as "but the computer said so." Examples: A software identifies people by name and birth date. If there are two people with the same name and birthday, the software can't tell them apart, so some decisions will be mailed to the wrong person. Or an AI that suggests that police should patrol more in a certain area. This leads to more criminals being apprehended. But every police officer knows that you catch criminals on patrol anywhere in the city.
Just last week, I read: "AI is neither artificial nor intelligent." All the data, the software and the hardware is all made and affected by humans. And it's not intelligent because it simply learns to respond to stimuli like Pavlov's dogs ... just without the dog.
Therefore, Milgram is even relevant when it comes to "perfect" computers.

[shefinsha]

I guess It can also be applicable through persuasion .like an authority can influence us to change our attitude and that attitude can produce a kind of behaviour that is against our former belief

[AshleyMcKenzie-ee]

Odd that I have read about this experiment many times before but the details hit differently this time. And while no one got hurt--at least not physically (certainly a lot of emotional trauma)--it still made me cry. People do not understand fully the things that influence their behavior. I have succumbed to peer pressure (groupthink/hive mind) when I was a kid but never to a point where it physically hurt anyone. Definitely emotionally. And vice versa. I have been hurt by groups of bullies both physically and emotionally. Cliques and social movements can sometimes harbor terrible people as much as they can harbor good.

[Meme_verse]

Well this Channel is mind blowing !! Bring many more Experiments lessons. 🙏

[Sirblueshueify]

I wonder if the experiment comes up with such high results due to how many response prompts they had. For some reason, it felt like saying you didn't want to do it 4 times is a lot. People would pass a line where they thought, even subconsciously, that the conversation was circular; they do repeat most of the words each time. 2 prompts seem like a more natural "I don't want to do this." "Yes, I am sure I don't want to do this." type of thing. That may just be me though.

[Saurabhgupta]

Because normally a human lives under fear and anxiety, It's all about survival. That's what babies do, babies follow authority of parents, that's how they survive. They say in the first five-six years most neural connections are made, that means how ones gonna live their life is pretty much predictable. So in a way majority of humanity are just bigger babies, they just wanna survive so they go/follow where power/money/authority is.

[VamanNeurekar]

Would love to see more social psychology videos!!

[NightWatchGaming]

"If my family had to endure psychological hardship then everyone has to also!"
~Stanley Milgram (probably) before unleashing some real borderline psychological torture sociological experiments on the world.