An excerpt from the book Homo
Imitans by Leandro Herrero:
Not many people knew what was going on in the
psychology department. Nothing unusual about that. An
advert in the local newspaper offered volunteers a few dollars for
participating in an experiment, and many people from the city of
New Haven applied.
The study was run by Stanley Milgram, a small
curious assistant professor specializing in social experiments.
This one examined the effects of punishment—administered here as
an electric shock—on learning. The psychologist conducting
the experiment read sequences of words to be repeated: house,
money, flower, pretty, whether, cat. Each time a subject got
them wrong, the volunteer, who was sitting on the other side
of a one-way glass screen, administered a small electric shock.
The potency of the shock increased progressively with each
mistake – the lever moving from 25v to 30v, 40v and so on.
As the experiment continued, the subject’s
reaction changed from a grimace to expression of more and more
discomfort. Invariably, the level became very unpleasant, even
unbearable. The subject would be almost screaming. The administrator
objected. “Never mind,” the psychologist said, “this is a well-controlled
experiment, you need to keep pushing the button.” Screams. “I want to stop. He wants to get out.” “No,”
said the psychologist, “keep trying. It’s the protocol, we can’t break this
experiment yet.” And so it continued until the pain was intolerable and
the administrators were shaking. But they kept pushing the
button. Well, some of them: 65 % to be precise. The other 35% gave
up and refused to continue the torture.
The experiments were repeated and repeated,
always the same: mistakes, shocks, up, up, up. And the citizens
from New Haven kept pushing the button even though they were
torturing the guy on the other side of the screen. Again and
again, 65% complied with the instructions, and 35% told the
psychologist to keep the money. More screams, more shocks and more
knowledge about learning.
For more visit www.viralchange.com
No comments:
Post a Comment