Psychology in Life

Being Pressured to Kill

Did you know that, given enough pressure, you would probably choose to kill rather than to disobey? This startling fact was discovered as a result of the Milgram experiment.

The experiment was carried out in 1961 and raised ethical questions. It involved tricking the participant of the experiment into thinking that the goal was completely different. The true goal was to study the willingness of a participant to obey authorities when forced to act against their own conscience.

Pressure Pressure

In the Milgram experiment, 2 ‘randomly’ chosen people are assigned the role of either teacher or learner and the experimenter is given his own role. One of the randomly chosen people is actually a confederate – someone who is working with the experimenter. The confederate is always assigned the role of learner.

The teacher and learner are separated by one wall with audio contact. The experimenter is placed in the same room as the teacher. The teacher is told that the experiment will be using electro shocks to study memory and is given a sample shock.

From this point, the teacher asks the learner a series of questions. If the learner answers incorrectly, the teacher shocks him. Every time the leaner is incorrect, the shock voltage goes up by a certain amount, until finally stopping at a lethal 450 Volts which is administered 3 times before the experiment ends. Of course, there was no real electrocution. The learner acts as if he is in pain (with a pre recorded tape).

How many ‘teachers’ do you think would continue on with the experiment even though it is obvious that the learner is ‘dying’? You would think they’d all stop halfway through. A staggering 65% of participants continued the experiment to the end.

If the participant objected t0 performing the electrocutions, the experimenter (don’t forget, he’s in the same room as the teacher) says the following in order:

1. Please continue.
2. The experiment requires that you continue.
3. It is absolutely essential that you continue.
4. You have no other choice, you must go on.

After these four prods, the experiment would end if the participant continued to object. While most participants did object at one point, the vast majority continued the experiment. In fact, only one person in the initial experiments opted out of the experiment before the 300 Volt point.

Why? How can you let someone die right in front of you?

It’s hard to understand how you could continue on with the experiment even with the screams of pain coming from the other side of the wall. This highlights the level of obedience in the company of someone with authority.

There are several theories attempting to explain this remarkable scenario.

• The participants becomes an instrument of obedience and don’t consider themselves as responsible for their actions anymore.
• In a situation with an authority figure, the participant leaves the decision making process to the authorities as they would be more experienced in the situation. This is in line with the Asch conformity experiments and social proof.
• They participants believe that the experimenter is handling the situation properly and that the experiment is safe, despite the fact that it clearly is not.

Ethical Issues

As with every great experiment involving human beings, there were ethical questions raised at how the experiment was carried out. It was believed that the participants experienced emotional distress in administering the shocks, although afterwards they were usually happy to be part of the experiment.

Obedience in Everyday Life

As with every study in psychology, there are direct applications in real life. You can keep this experiment in mind the next time you are pressured into something you might be uncomfortable with. Don’t be afraid to argue against the authorities when you feel an injustice is being carried out. Who knows, maybe you can use this to persuade someone to do something that’s not normally accepted (I take no responsibility for your actions).

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