The Milgram Experiment in 2008
December 29, 2008 by ithinkthereforeib
I don´t know if I ever mentioned the Milgram experiment in class (if I did, I did not use the name), which was conducted in the aftermath of World War II to investigate how so many ordinary Germans participated in cruelties committed by Hitler´s regime. The 1963 experiment was conducted in the US, and results showed that the atrocious events of the Holocaust could (and do, if you think about it) happen elsewhere too – as what the experiment discovered was a profound connection between authority and obedience.
A NY Times article today reports that the experiment has been repeated now for the first time, with similar results. This, I think, does give food for thought about what humans are like…
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This article amazed me. The experiment is a relatively simple one yet its results demonstrate what humans are like and how many are willing to inflict pain on others. Sometimes I tend to think that in order to test a hypothesis or to obtain results as these ones a very complex procedure and experiment are needed, but the Milgram experiment was definitely not the case.
I saw an article recently that classified it as the top discovery of all times…think it was in http://www.howstuffworks.com