The Milgram Experiment 1962 Full Documentary

it is may 1962 an experiment is being conducted in the elegant interaction laboratory at Yale University the subjects of 40 males between the ages of 20 and 50 residing in the Greater New Haven area they were obtained by a newspaper advertisement and direct mail solicitation the subjects range in occupation from corporation presidents to good humor man and plumbers and an educational level from one who had not finished elementary school two subjects who have doctorate and other professional degrees let me say that the checks that you are simply for showing up at D WAC I have from this point on no matter what happens the money is yours I should like to tell both of you a little about the memory project psychologists have developed several theories to explain how people learn various types of material some of the better-known theories are treated in the book over there the teaching-learning process by Cantor one theory is that people learn things correctly whenever they get punished for making a mistake a common application of this theory would be with parents like a child he does something wrong but actually we know very little about the effect of punishment on learning because almost no truly scientific studies of the made of it in human beings for instance we saw how much punishment is best for London now we don't how much difference it makes us to lose giving the punishment what an adult learns best from an older or a younger person himself for many things of this sort so what we're doing project is bringing together a number of adults of different occupations and ages and we're asking some of them to be teachers and some be learners we want to find out just what effect different people have on each other as teachers and learners and also what effect punishment will have on in this situation there if I'm going to ask one of you to be the teacher here this afternoon the other be the learner and the way we usually decide is to let you draw from these two pieces of paper on which I've written into position this is agreeable can you take one quick the other you open those and tell me which of you is which please teacher we're all right now the next thing we'll have to do is set the learner up so that he can get some sort of punishment so learner would you step out here with me I want to step right in here learner and have a seat there you can leave your coke on the back of that chair if you're really fine have a seat right here and put yourself right up to the counter plate uh you may look on if you'd like while we get set up in here would you roll up your right sleeve please let's now what I'm going to do is strap down your arms to avoid any excessive movement on your part during the experiment is that too tight okay this electrode is connected to the shock generator in the next room and this electrode paste is to provide a good contact to avoid any blister of burn all right now let me explain to you learner exactly what's going to happen what you're supposed to do the teacher will read a list of word pairs till you like these a blue girl nice day fat neck and so forth you are to try to remember each pair for the next time through the teacher will read only the first word or the first half of the word pair for example you will say blue and then you'll read for other words such as boy girl grass hat now your job is to remember which one of these four other words was originally paired with blue and you indicate your answer by pressing one of these four switches now can you reach those all right that's fine now if the first word I just read boy had been paired with blue you'd press the first switch and this will indicate to the teacher that you thought it was the first word if you thought it have been the second word girl you'd press the second switch and so forth for the third word the third switch the fourth word the fourth switch now if you get it correct fine if you make an error however you'll be punished with an electric shock so of course it is to your advantage that you learn all these word pairs as quickly as possible too painful do you have any questions now before we go to the next room no but I think I should say this about two years ago I was the Veterans Hospital on West End and while there they detected a hard condition nothing serious but as long as I'm having these shocks I'm strong are they how dangerous are they well no although they may be painful they're not dangerous and anything else I know that's all alright teacher would you take the test and you see it in front of the shock generator please this machine generates electric shocks when you press one of the switches all the way down the learner gets a shock when you release it the shock stops just like that the switch will remain in this middle position after you released it to show you which switches you've used on the board of course if you were to press any one of them again to learn would get another shot all subjects are given identical instructions and the sample shock machine is now on to give you the teacher an idea of how much shock the learner is getting we think it's only fair that you receive a sample shock yourself are you agreeable with this all right Wade you pull up your right to sleep a little bit please all right I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and estimate the number of volts you receive in the sample shock do not open your eyes until I tell you to do so please close them now okay you may open your eyes and using the voltage scale up here would you an estimate for me the number of votes received please you may also use the verbal designation slight mutters strong so forth to help Sam on a number please good would you about 75 I'm actually it was 45 here although it may it seems stronger because of the electrode paste which provides a perfect contact all right let's go into our instructions we will begin with this test you will read each pair of words in this list once to the learner until you've read through the entire list direct your voice toward that microphone as the rooms of parsley soundproof after you read through the list once you'll go on to the next page and here starting from line pay you'll read the word in large letters along with each of the other words in the line for example the first line you read blue boy girl grass hat now after you've read the four choices learner pushes one of the switches on the board of him and the number he has selected a light up in this box one two three or four now if he gives the correct answer you say correct and go on to the next line the correct answers underline is also indicated in the right margin yeah if he were to indicate the wrong answer you would say wrong then tell him the number of volts you're going to give him then give him the punishment then read the correct word pair once and then go on to the next line for example if he indicated three for blue you would say wrong 15 volts he pressed and released the switch three blue girl and then go on to the next line now each time he gives a wrong answer you move up one switch on the shock generator and it's important that you follow this procedure exactly so to help you let me go through again very quickly all right I would suggest you read the list and the test at a brisk pace to keep it moving and of course we'll begin with 15 volts for the first wrong answer okay cannot begin until I say ready begin please attention learner your teachers about to begin the test try and remember the word pairs ready begin little girl nice day fat neck the early stages of the test passed uneventfully incorrect well now I get a shock of 75 volt soft hair he kind of did some yelling in there incorrect you'll now get a shock of 105 volts hardhead just how far can you go in this thing as far as it necessary what do you mean as far as is necessary to complete the test I sure don't know the effect of this thing and I'm a little skeptical about electricity the experiment requires you want each you please continue in correct 150 volts I think we have to find out what's wrong in there first the experiment requires that you continue please well we experiment might require that we continue but I still think we should find out what the condition to the gentleman it as I said before I will the shocks may be painful they're not dangerous look I don't know anything about electricity I don't profess any knowledge nor will I go any further until I find out the guys okay it's absolutely essential that you continue well essential or not this program isn't quite that important to me that I should go along doing something and I know nothing about particularly if it's going to injure someone I don't know what this is all about well whether the learner likes it or not we must go on until he learned all the word pairs correctly well you can sure and have your 450 back I didn't want it anyhow I intend to get it to some charitable organisation but I wouldn't go along with it not the issue here that check is yours here I reeled it alive it is essential that you continue the experiment no there's no central no wonder you got no other choice did you Oh a lot of choices my number one choice is that I wouldn't go on if I thought he was paying for the teacher was of necessity placed in a difficult predicament and steps had to be taken to assure as well being before he was discharged from the laboratory after an extended discussion with the experimenter a friendly reconciliation was arranged between teacher and learner wrong here 75 volts please continue cool wrong head understand five-o wet wrong it's horse people continue teacher please go on next word is sad well we're going out of here is user to do it the experiment requires that you go on teaching if he refuses hey well why does it learn it likes it or not we must go on until he's learned all the word take the check back I'm not gonna hurt the guy no the checks not the issue it's absolutely essential that you continue well you don't want to I refused to we had no other choice you must have a choice as if you don't continue we're gonna have to discontinue the experiment last to eat says cut it out after all he knows what he can stand grape I took that thing that the slight one it was enough for me I wouldn't want to be getting that every time I got a wrong answer that's my opinion that's where I understand on it how do you feel how do I feel he was getting a shock I feel alright like ask you something at one point were you you were doing something a little unusual you laughing yes I was at first I slammed on him I heard him youch why do you think you're alive I don't know I thought it was funny I suppose didn't I got to think when he said no that's an offer yet enough though it wasn't funny to me then one might suppose that a subject would simply break off or continue as his conscience and temperament dictate yet this is very far from what happened there were powerful reactions of tension and emotional strain in a substantial portion of the teachers one puzzling sign of tension was the regular occurrence of nervous laughing fits 14 of 40 subjects showed definite signs of nervous laughter and smiling the post experimental interview subjects took pains to point out they were not sadistic types and the laughter did not mean they enjoyed attacking a learner I'd like to tell you a little more about the experiment first of all the gentleman in there was not being shocked he got no shocks whatsoever oh did you think he was sure oh yeah I did in fact I tried to get my finger off the button as fast as I could he wasn't being shocked at all and the main purpose of the experiment was to see how you would react to mr. Williams orders whether you would take them or to by his authority or what might define it except you did why didn't you go on yeah hell with him what a hell is he as far as I'm concerned see right good night sir yeah he's not telling it in my mind I was hurting that guy I'd continue to hurt another young vain I don't believe in it no matter what he it says no matter what who said mr. Williams I would ask mr. Wickham for anybody else how did you feel about mr. Williams never capable you mean I didn't like him think about Frank with you don't care who he is you're the president of Yale or anybody else what a name of e research was to study behavior in a strong situation of deep consequence to the participants this approach meant that we had a special obligation to protect the welfare and dignity of the persons who took part in the study before they left the laboratory subjects were assured that the victim had received no painful shocks and equally important they were reconciled with their victim in an atmosphere friendliness after the completion of the experimental series subjects were sent a detailed report of the results and all purposes of the experimental program a formal assessment of this procedure points to its overall effectiveness the victim was an accomplice of the experimenter the drawing was rigged so that the naive subject was always the teacher and the accomplice always became the learner the victim according to plan provided many wrong answers his verbal responses were standardized on tape and each protest was coordinated to a particular voltage level on the shock generator with the aid of indicator lights the experimenter who is provided with a similar indicator panel took notes on the subjects performance he recorded any deviations from the prescribed sequence of shocks the interval between the victims answered the subjects delivery of a shock and the time in milliseconds that the shock leaver was depressed unknown to the subjects shock levels were automatically recorded by an event recorder wired directly into the shock generator this provided us with an objective record of each subjects performance that is incorrect this will be a 3:30 correct phrase is rich-boy next phrase is fast burn train plane continue teacher that is incorrect this will be 3:45 the correct answer is fast bird the next one blunt I think 3:45 as far as I'm willing to go under his condition he's complaining as I said the experiment requires that you continue teacher look I go any further it's absolutely essential that you continue whether learner likes it or not we must go on until he has learned all the word pairs correctly once if you didn't answer I didn't mind twice but the third time he refuses to answer I don't want to go any further because I think that when we're getting this stage here and he is complained of a heart condition he is complaining now I don't want to go any further you got no other choice teacher never choice I'm not gonna go ahead with well we'll have to discontinue the experiment then I'm sorry I'd like to like to ask you a few questions if I may sure before the post experimental interview subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire they were asked to indicate for example on a 14-point scale just how nervous or tense they felt subjects were also asked to estimate the degree of pain suffered by the victim sure this hey you say that the last few shocks that you administered to the learner and you seem to you to be extremely painful to him what he said that well by the yelling only yeah well they wanted to get out of it I mean how else can you think do you think he had a right to get out well I should think so did he volunteer to be in the experiment yes he did what not knowing what he was in front what gave him the right to get out of the experiment well it's something that's against his will well 100 people place in this situation how many do you think would just go right on to the end in mr. Wallace's with mr. Wallace were up there and say mr. Williams for some reason or others said keep going you're asking me how many people total 100 right well personally having yeah if you get one or two you'd be lucky well I'm not sure luckiest forty psychiatrists at a leading Medical School were also asked to predict the performance of 100 hypothetical subjects they predicted that only a little more than 1/10 of 1% of the subjects would administer the highest shock on the board yet actually 50% of the subjects obey the experimenters commands fully and the experiment depicted in this film wrong 90 volts wrong old 135 and so a woman and white cloud rock house answer wrong hundred fifty volts answer force continued please all right the experiment requires you continued teacher please continue next word is sad Bobby you going continue please Oh sad sad face music clown girl all right nice one short sentence movie skirt time and simply wrong I'm a 65 volt hi continue please line there's a lot of the heart condition to there to go just continue please sharp axe needle stick blade wrong I love the honor that you hold please continue Kiki nealy you're gonna get a shot under navy volts as I said before the shocks may be painful that I'm not even there hollering he can't stand out what if something happens to him the experiment requires that you continue teacher now but I'm not gonna get that man sick of that we need he's hotter than that you know what I mean I wasn't learner likes it or not we must go on until I don't know all the words I'd refuse to take the responsibility I'm getting her than that I mean he's under Hollerin it's absolutely essential that you continue teacher there's too many left here it I mean GZ he gets wrong here that's too many of them left I mean who's gonna take the responsibility pay in the APA's a tie gentlemen I'm responsible for anything that happens here continually I next one slow walk dance truck music answer please wrong I don't 95 volts dance continue please well the experiment requires I mean I know it does sir but I mean huh you don't know what he's getting in for he's up to 195 volts answer please wrong 225 volts the word is noise no house pet book name answer please correct nice and quiet song party child evening all right nice and tame wolf bear dog castles wrong answers bear so I'm gonna 40 volts my actual sweet yeah no you go back up to the beginning of that page and go through it again until he's learned them all correct do you mean I gotta keep going up with the scale no sir he's already there I'm not gonna get a 450 bolus the experiment requires I know yes but that man is hollering in there sir as I said before all the shocks maybe paint a painting is yellow than that start with blue please at the top of the page continue please teacher going over it again no just just go ahead blue boy girl brass hat correct nice day sky job chair wrong answer is day 285 volts continue please fight man lady tub neck answer please wrong answer is neck 300 volts tell you the next word is green play green grass height 8 Apple if the learner doesn't answer in a reasonable time about four or five seconds consider the answers are wrong and follow the same procedures you have been doing for wrong answers say wrong tell them the number volts give them the punishment reading the correct answer continue please green grass hat pink Apple answer please go on with the procedure please teacher 315 volts the answer is ink excellent you gotta keep going a shock if they don't answer and that's what is rich bring out in 30 volts excellent fire bird car train plane come on please please answer the answer is bird 345 volts blunt night steak word arrow answer please continue please the answer is arrow great out of 60 volts go on please with the experiment please continue saw rub pillow hair grass answer please go on teacher hare 375 volts I think sometimes that I fall in there honking no answer he was hollering or less voltage can't you check it to see if he's all right please not once we've started please continue teacher cool they shade water cave answer please are you all right in there are you all right please continue teacher I know I keep giving up shocks continue I'm up to 390 continue please have them do that man that nice and gold dollar necklace moon paint something's happened to that man in that you better check it out upset you want to answer me or nothing please continue go on please you accept all the responsibility the responsibility is mine correct please the wine gold dollar necklace moon paint answer please are you all right 400 of 5 volts the answer is Moon Maxo the heart stone headbread work answer please the answer is head 420 volts max on wet night grass duck cloth the answer is duck 435 volts says dangerous a big a shock here next 6 IMAX will continue please 435 volts maximum brain woman soldier dog horse answer is woman order 50 balls that's it now continue using the last switch on the board please the 450 switch for each wrong answer continually I not gonna no answer please continue the next word is white what you think you should look in on oh please not once we've started the explore what the men have attacked or something that the experiment requires that we continue come on Donna don't the man's help mean anything whether the learner likes it or not me but he might be dead in there I mean some people can't take the shot sir please and you have to be rude but I mean I think you should look in on them well you know you guys do is look at the door I don't get no answer no noise something I think is happening to the gentleman is that we must continue the lawn please you're gonna keep giving what 450 volts every shot now that's correct continue the next word is white white cloud Horse Rock House answer please the answer is horse 450 volts max words sad face music clown girl the answer is face 450 volts max what is short sentence movies earth time I excuse me teacher we'll have to discontinue the experiment I'd like to ask you a few questions if I may how do you feel I think I'm all right but I don't like what's happened that I've fallen there he's been Holloman we had to keep killing Jack I don't like that one bit I mean he want to get out he just kept going kept throwing for and 50 both I don't like that he wouldn't even look at him that gentleman who was actually pushing wish I was but he kept insisting I told him no but he said he gotta keep bowling I told him it's time we stop though he got up to 195 two hundred ten volts he won't let me I wanted to stop I kept insisting to stop but he says no I don't know look in on the follow that buddy wouldn't do it actually the shocks are not dangerous at all well I mean I didn't hear no more answers from the fault I figured he shouldn't look he looked in on anyway but he wouldn't do it well let me ask is there anything that mr. Wallace and there could have said that would have gotten you to stop no I didn't hear the only thing I heard is the shock wasn't too bad well is there anything that mr. Wallace could have said something that he said it would have got me to stop you know was that you didn't say anything about making me stop no but is there anything that mr. Wallace could have said that would have caused you to stop giving the shocks no matter what the experimenter had told you well I figured to Hana the holy SH I give him were quite a bit I wanted to stop but he kept insisting not to stop I mean the phone there is Holland he said I don't want to do it over and I want to get out of here I want to get out of here why did you stop I did stop but he kept going keep going oh why did you just disregard what he said he says it's got to go on the experiment okay I'd like to tell you a little about do you feel a little upset well I mean I feel concerned about the gentleman in there I do sir okay let me tell you first of all that this is not essentially an experiment and traveling and learning it's an experiment in which we are looking at your reaction to taking orders and mr. Williams gave you those orders to go on according to schedule the gentleman in there was not actually getting shocked he was not getting shocked oh you mean he wasn't getting nothing he is part of the Act well I'm glad to hear that I'm telling you I mean I was getting upset here I mean I was getting ready to walk out well I'm glad to hear that he wasn't getting shot really on one piece and this was set up so that we could see how you would react to taking orders now you seem quite reluctant to go on in fact on several occasions you said you didn't want to go on well I was concerned about the other party sir some people actually going quite gleefully no matter what yeah well I mean maybe in other instances where human life wasn't involved or first it it has suffered maybe I keep going on but I mean I could see the point I don't want to guys suffer that for good he was having a heart attack or something that's a reason I wanted us right well you know that in a hospital situation if you work for a doctor is it orderly he told you to give a hypodermic to a patient even though the patient protested well you might have to do it well that's true sir if I understood oh I don't know maybe more of what the treatment was he was getting there maybe I would go on but I mean the way he was hollering I thought he was an agony I mean then I think it's for somebody that knows a little more about this machine and stuff to say whether to go or not and that's why I asked the gentleman there should I keep going why don't we bring in mr. Wallace he's actually employee of the project Jim god bless you boy you know you're happy shaking it I sure as heck do I thought you just about a hatter than that that's good you know about the experiment that he wasn't well tiny honest truth like that well I was thinking he was getting them shocks I thought it was being overdone I mean I was just about ready to get us conservative agenda I should have known but I mean me would take any chance of the human life here now these experiment many people not knowing much about the experiment claimed that subjects who go to the end of the board are sadistic nothing could be more foolish as an overall characterization of these persons the context of their action must always be considered the individual upon entering the laboratory becomes integrated into a situation that carries its own momentum in further experiments we have attempt to analyze a few of the factors that contribute to the force of the situation the salience of the victim seems in some degree to have regulated the subjects performance additional experimental conditions were designed to explore this possibility in a first condition the victim was placed in another room and cannot be heard or seen by the subject except that at 300 volts he pounded on the wall in protest after 300 volts he no longer answered or was heard from in a second condition the victims protest could be heard through the walls of the laboratory this condition was depicted in the present film in a third condition the victim was placed in the same room as the subject and one and a half feet from him thus visible as well as audible and voice cues were provided the final condition of the series was identical to this with this exception the victim only received a shock when his hand rested on a shock plate at the 150 volt level the victim demanded to be let free and refused to place his hand on the shock plate the experimenter ordered the subject to force the victims hand onto the plate thus obedience in this condition required that the subject have physical contact with the victim in order to give him punishment beyond the 150 volt level 40 adult subjects were studied in each condition the data revealed that obedience was significantly reduced as the victim was made more immediate to the subject if the spacial relationship of the subject and victim is relevant to the degree of obedience a relationship of subject to experimenter would also seem to play a part in a series of experiments we varied the physical closeness and degree of surveillance of the experimenter in one condition the experimenter set just a few feet away from the subject in a second condition after giving initial instructions the experimenter left the laboratory and gave his orders by telephone and still a third condition the experimenter was never seen providing instructions by means of a tape recording activated when subjects entered the laboratory obedience dropped sharply as the experimenter was physically removed from the laboratory the number of obedient subjects when the experimenter was present was almost three times as great as when the experimenter gave his orders by telephone it would appear that something akin to fields of force diminishing and effectiveness with increasing psychological distance from their source have a controlling effect on the subjects performance the effectiveness of the experimenters commands may depend in an important way on the larger institutional context in which they are issued the experiments described thus far were conducted at Yale University an organization which most subjects regarded with respect and sometimes awe to explore the problem we moved our apparatus to a somewhat run-down office building in industrial Bridgeport and we replicated experimental conditions there without any visible tide to the University the level of obedience in Bridgeport although somewhat reduced was not significantly lower than that obtained Yale a considerable amount of obedience and defiance in everyday life occurs in connection with groups and we had reason to feel in the light of many group studies already done in psychology that group forces would have a profound effect on reactions to Authority a series of experiments was run to examine these effects in all cases only one naive subject was studied each hour but he performed in the midst of actors who unknown to him were employed by the experimenter in one experiment actors broke off in the middle of the experiment when this happened 90% of the subjects followed suit and defied the experimenter in another condition the actors followed the orders of immediately this strengthened the experimenters power only slightly and still a third experiment the job of pushing the switch to shock the learner was given to one of the actors while the naive subject performed a subsidiary act in this situation only three subjects out of 40 broke off the results as I observe them in a laboratory are disturbing they raised the possibility that human nature cannot be counted on to insulate men from brutality and inhumane treatment at the direction of malevolent Authority a substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate Authority if in this study an anonymous experimenter could successfully command adults to subdue a 50 year old man and force on him painful electric shocks against his protests one can only wonder what government with its vastly greater authority and prestige can command of its subjects

Channel: Lof Der Zotheid Psychologenpraktijk

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Keywords: Milgram experiment tweede wereldoorlog befehl ist befehl gehoorzaamheid psychologie

Id: rdrKCilEhC0

Length: 44min 27sec (2667 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 25 2016