Milgram

• Milgram was fascinated with Nazi Germany and wanted to understand how the Holocaust could have happened.
• Milgram proposed the hypothesis that 'Germans are different', suggesting that Germans have a basic character defect which causes them to blindly obey authority figures.
• Consequently Milgram wanted to test this hypothesis.
• Milgram's aim was to investigate what level of obedience would be shown when participants were told by an authority figure to administer electric shocks to each person.

• A controlled observation was used.
• A self-selected sample of 40 males aged 20-50 were obtained via a newspaper advertisement requiring participants to take part in a study into the effect of punishment on learning.
• Participants were assigned the role of teacher via a fixed lottery and witnessed the 'learner' being attatched to the chair with electrodes and were told the shocks were painful but not harmful.
• The teacher was then taken to the next room where they were seated in front of the shock generator.
• The teacher was given a sample shock of 45V.
• The teacher was instructed to test the learner's ability to recall a series of word-pairs, for every incorrect answer the teacher was instructed to administer an electric shock which would be increased by 15V each time.
• The experimenter encouraged the teacher to obey by giving a standardised series of verbal prods.
• The learner is classed as obedient when they administer 450V.

• All of the 40 participants obeyed the experimenter up to 300 volts (when victim hit wall and stopped responding).
• 65% of participants delivered the maximum 450 volts.
• Many of the participants showed signs of distress.
• Some sweated, trembled, bit their lip, dug their fingernails into their flesh, displayed nervous laughing and three of them had seizures.

Milgram stated that participants obeyed due to various factors, such as:

• Took place in a prestigious university.
• Participants believed it was for a worthy purpose.
• Teacher believed that the 'learner' had volunteered.
• Equal chance of being selected as either teacher or learner.

Individuals will obey authority figures even when they know that what they are doing is morally wrong.