Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (Perennial Classics)

Although the studies that are contained in this book are a little over 40 years old, they are as relevant as ever. Although Milgram wrote with his eye to the past - he looked back to the Holocaust and to My Lai (he finally wrote the book in 1972, 10 years after the studies were completed) - his voice has proven to be not only prophetic, but of continuing insight and relevance for understanding group dynamics of power and violence.Milgram's studies were done between 1961 and 1962 while he was at Yale; they were all variations on a theme: a unknowing participant (the subject-teacher) was brought to believe that s/he was participating in a learning study. The other two main participants were a man who posed as the student (the learner) and one who posed as the principal investigator (the authority figure).The subject-teacher was told that the learning would occur in this way: the student would be hooked up to an electric shock generator while the teacher would read a set of word pairs, which the student would repeat back. When the student missed one of the word pairs, he would be shocked by the "teacher" in increasingly higher shocks (the shocks increased in 15 volt increments), up to 450 volts (which was marked, along with the 435 volt mark, with XXX).The basic goal of the study was to find out how far the "teachers" would go despite the cries, pounding and eventual silence on the part of the students. The frightening finding was that more often than not, the vast majority of teachers followed through with the command to continue the experiment, which was given by the man acting as the principal investigator every time one of the "teachers" wanted to quit. [It should be noted, however, that the experiment was designed such that the "student" was never shocked, as the student was an actor, typically in a connected room and could only be heard via microphone.]One of the things that makes reading Milgram's studies so chilling is the scientific exactness of Milgram's own writing style as he describes the studies. The moral and ethical issues raised in these studies, although addressed by Milgram in his narrating the book, are also expressed in this same mathematically cold style. It's almost like a bad science fiction movie where our whole human story is narrated - moral failures and all - with robotic precision. It's unsettling.Of course, it *should* be: any experiment that deals with human interaction on such a violent and perversely authoritarian level ought to get us a bit uncomfortable. Of course, Milgram also notes that when the subjects were confronted with their own complicitness, they often blamed others or excused themselves in some way. It really does give a tremendous insight into the psychology of human beings: when faced with our own evil, we try to excuse it rather than deal with it.If, at the end of reading Milgram's book, we aren't questioning ourselves and our ability to be violent and to promote the spread of violence by being passive, we have missed the entire point of the book. Milgram's goal is to not simply report the collection and analysis of data, but to engage the reader on a fundamentally moral level. He cites Hannah Arendt's work Eichman in Jerusalem and notes that evil is not necessarily expressed in a pro-active way; indeed, it can be far more subtle but no less dangerous.Milgram's book is one well worth the effort. It reveals an element of human being that is so easy to forget, especially given that our culture is so bent on *denying* any element of - or at least any potential for - evil within ourselves. Of course, such blindness to the reality of evil and tragedy is what makes *letting it happen* so easy.

Having been a psychology major in my undergraduate days back in the 1980s, a therapist in my Masters, and managed research projects funded by NIH in the 1990s while working on my Ph.D., I often heard of Milgram's work. It is eye opening and very important work.I do not know if we could ever find out the answers to the questions he was researching had the research not been conducted in the manner he did.We "rigged" the game of trouble and Candyland to get more real parenting when we did videotaped interviews. Did we mislead the parents in our research when they inferred we were looking at the children when we really were looking at the parental behaviors? By getting the kids to be frustrated, we saw "real" parenting, not socially acceptable behavior in front of a camera.So, I have mixed feelings about Milgram, in spite of the critics. We learned that Obedience to Authority is to easy and people need to be aware of just how easy it is for the vast majority of people to become sheep ready to be slaughtered.

Milgram's writing here is quite dense and dark, by nature of the theories he writes of. But the book itself is easy to read and paints a frightening picture of humanity.

An interesting work which is probably too subjective to be acceptable to the academic community as such. Coupled with books on killology such as "on killing" it paints an interesting picture of human nature, violence, domination and submission.The inference about the banality of evil (referring explicitly to the [...] Govt of Germany) has caused a furore amongst those who like their "bad" people evil and exceptional.This book clearly illustrates that good people do bad things.An important work and I am sure that it is going to be one of the first books to be put on the bonfire by those who simplify the social interaction of those who commit atrocities.I also think that it reveals a real insight into American atrocities in Viet Nam and Iraq (amongst other locations that Americans have insisted on using military "assistance" upon).If your looking to find the blind spot in the American Psyche then this is a great start. Take a look at "words that work" after you read this if you really want to be scared of Americans.

The book is really intreseting and i highly recommend it. The cover of the book was unfortunately damage somewhat but nothing major.

I have been aware of Milgram's experiments for many years, but reading his first hand account of them is fascinating.His is one of the most powerful critiques of human nature and its flaws. It is as relevant today as it was in the 1960s as a tool to understand the Nazi experiment.Today we have the transgender crisis which sees teachers, doctors and parents acting like the naive subjects of Milgram.

O estudo robusto do Professor Milgram nos diz muito sobre a vulnerabilidade do "eu" ante as intricadas relacões sociais do indivíduo com a autoridade.Leitura assencial para a reflexão sobre as nossas reais responsabilidades pelo atos nos quais tomamos parte (quando ordenado por uma reconhecida autoridade), lembrando que a grande responsabilidade pelas consequências dos mesmos recaem moralmente sobre nós.

Viele kennen den Mythos "Milgram Experiment" . Quelle des Wissens Hören Sagen, Filme, Theaterstücke.Stanley Milgram wird gerne als Sadist bezeichnet, der seine Versuchspersonen sinnlos gequält habe.Die Beschäftigung mit den genial geplanten Studien ist jedem zu empfehlen, der wissen will, wie wir Menschen "ticken". Keine seiner Versuchspersonen seiner Experimente fühlte sich gequält. Je nach Setting leisteten sieauch aktiv Widerstand. Dies wissen die "Kenner" des "Milgram Experiments" nicht.Der Milgrams grundlegenden Forschungsergebnisse sollten an Universitäten und weiterführenden Schulendargelegt werden. Die "Spindoktoren" mißbrauchen sie. Freie Bürger sollten sie kennen um gewappnet zu sein.

The book explores the mechanisms of obedience, to reveal the faults that exist in the psychology of any person.