Sunday, March 6, 2011

Conformity and Ethics


The modern version of Milgram’s shock experiment describes it’s been more than 45 years and people have not changed their ways of being obedient under an authoritative figure. In search for more ethical experiment, Jerry Burger conducted the same experiment but with few differences. One of those differences compared to Milgram’s first experiment was the maximum number of shocks received was 150 volts instead of going all the way to 450 volts. The newer version of experiment also conducted the experiment with the participants and an accomplice to see if that would affect the participant’s behavior. Sadly, the participant’s behavior was not greatly affected but it stayed the same as before like they were only with the experimenter. For an ethical experiment, the experimenter for example the “teacher” was given an option of quitting the experiment whenever they felt the need to. Surprisingly the participant went on with the experiment until they were done asking questions. Behavior based on gender was also observed while watching the experiment. Because of the nervous laughs, shows women were more hesitant to go on with it than men. However that fact did not change the outcome of the experiment. Another difference conducted in this experiment was that Burger’s experiment had to take permission from American Psychological Association. In it a clinical psychologists screened the participants in order to see if they would have a negative effect of the procedure which did not happen in Milgrams experiment. Another difference was that participants were told three times during the experiment that they had an option of leaving while receiving the payment. In Milgram’s experiment that was also not the case, the participants were forced to go on. This study shows that even with few adjustments, people are continuing to follow what their authority tells them. Burger’s experiment proves that even in modern day society, people are obligated to do what they are told without doing what they consider is ethically right. 

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