Destructive obedience

Stanley Milgram’s original publication

https://theunconsciouscurriculum.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/milgram-original-paper.pdf

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fh0040525

18 studies, 1961 to 1963

Wide range of participants, $4.50 (turn up fee, no conditions)

Yale University

Victim was a 47year old accountant.

Predicted compliance was 0 to 3% (1.2%)

Actual number was 65%

Later work

Six degrees of separation

Correlation between watching TV and anti-social behaviour

Learning from Milgram

Only bad people do bad things

No, ordinary people can do bad things in the wrong context

We rationalise and diffuse responsibility

It’s not my fault, it’s that guy who gave me the orders, anyway, I’m just a small cog in a big machine I can’t control.

Beware of gradual escalation

That small compromise can lead on to the next slightly bigger compromise. Do not give moral compromise a ‘foot in the door’.

(Milgram’s machine had 30 graduations of shock, started at a mere 15 volts).

Okay, you don’t want to do that, well just do this little bit…

Well, you did that little bit last week, what’s the problem now?

Make no mistake, conscience can be blunted.

People carried on despite personal distress

The procedure created extreme levels of nervous tension in some …

A degree of empathy was possible, but overridden by conformity, (all had been given a 45 Volt demo shock)

Pressure of a situation

Do not let the pressure of people or a situation override your moral stance. Use your rational intellect to avoid confusion generated by others.

Authority can be wrong

An establishment that was once good can go bad. The power of an institution or state can be weaponised against the individual.

No matter how apparently credible the source it can be wrong. Academics, doctors, researchers can all be wrong.

Some academics, doctors, researchers can be bought.

Obedience to authority can override personal morality.

Feel free to appeal to absolute authority.

Do to others as you would have them do to you (Luke 6, 31)

The four standard prods

How many times have you heard these?

Sometimes our orders are explicit, other times much more covert

That which sound credible is often not

Milgram’s subjects were given apparently authoritative information on the relationship between learning and punishment,

We should challenge apparent axioms

Well, someone has to do it … You are just passing on the dirty job to the next guy, where is your consideration?

What’s your field?

Military, justice system, education, corpriate, healthcare?

‘The point of rupture is the act of disobedience’.

Look around, talk around, you will find your ethical prospective is not a currently unacceptable minority or hateful position. Many of us ordinary people share your morality.

Classification of subjects

‘Defiant subjects’, refused after 12 shocks

‘Obedient subjects’, administered all shock levels commanded.

Milgram’s subjects received a dehoax

Don’t expect this in your life