Lecture 21: Obedience

Question 1

Explaining Evil

Answer 1

Common Sense: Evil is done for no good reason by subhumans who enjoy inflicting suffering and pain on others

Question 2

Adolf Eichmann

Answer 2

• Organized Hitler’s final solution- to annihilate all jews

- Argued he was only following orders

Question 3

Stanley Milgram Experiment

Answer 3

-Inspired by Eichmann
-Universal Surprise at the Results- 65 percent of individuals complied until the end of the experiment
-

Question 4

Nonfactors in Milgram Experiment

Answer 4

• Gender
• Student/Nonstudent
• Sadism

Question 5

Minor Factors

Answer 5

• Personality of participant
• Prestige of Institution
• Appearance of experimenter and victim

Question 6

Major Factors

Answer 6

• Proximity of experimenter
• Proximity of victim
• Solitude of Subject

Question 7

Psychological Surprises

Answer 7

• Challenged psychologists and common people’s understanding of human behavior
• Ability for people to inflict pain without sadism, malice. Individuals under stress, anxiety, tension
• Dissociation of thought and emotion from their behavior

Question 8

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 8

In predicting behavior, we put too much weight on personality traits and not enough weight on situation
Underestimate effectiveness of signs of dominance
Diffusion of responsibility of wrongdoer as enabler of harm causer
Denigrate the victim, “cognitive dissonance”

Question 9

Escalation game: Dollar Auction

Answer 9

Auction of a Dollar
Loser has to pay bid
-At each stage,
fold- lose entire cost
bid- possibility of gain or reduction of loss
Paradoxical Outcome- Can lose any amount of money
-Rational method- Don’t play

Question 10

Milligram as Escalation

Answer 10

Reward- Approval of experimenter, impression of consistency, satisfaction of completing task
Each Stage
Obey- chance at reward
Disobey- Hurt subject without reward
Other Escalation games- War, Strikes, Lawsuits

Question 11

Milgram vs Holocaust

Answer 11

• Real life genocides- people kill without being ordered to even if subjects are physically present
• Test subjects put in novel and sudden situations
• Real life allows reflection and reassessment

Question 12

Ethical issues of Milgram

Answer 12

• Deception of test subjects

- Stress from experiment

Question 13

Burger vs Milgram

Answer 13

• Stopped at 150 V
• Administered 15 V sample shock to test subject
• Made them sign consent form saying they may not recieve all information
• Immediate debrief
• Subjects screened for biological disorders

Question 14

Burger Results

Answer 14

• 70 percent of people still continued to end of experiment
• Double the people disobeyed, but not statistically significant
• Still relevant today