The Milgram Experiment | THE HEIST | Derren Brown

under the guise of a motivational seminar in which I teach my skills to a group of middle management businessmen and women can I get any of them to steal 100,000 pounds in what they believe is a genuine armed robbery that's the show this is the heist so a week ago I arranged for them to take part in what they now think is a piece of unfilmed academic research at a university and nothing to do with the show supposedly looking into the effects of punishment on learning and they believe now that this is part of their growth process in fact it was a reenactment of a powerful experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram in 1963 to look at how normal people can commit atrocious acts simply because they're following orders Milgram's parents were Jewish refugees in World War two and his pioneering work speaks volumes about the nature of responsibility it's being filmed with covert cameras thank you they're introduced to an actor pretending to be another participant you didn't come from the same room you know no time so to know we don't actually know how punishment affects learning after a brief introduction our subjects are tricked into thinking they've chosen their role as teachers in the experiment and if you just tell me what your positions are but I know learner and teacher learner our subjects observe the learner being instructed by the scientist who is just another actor this electrode is connected to a generator in a second room where are we going with the teacher okay just ensure that we have a good contact with the skin and so it doesn't cause any blistering of burning is that comfortable that's okay again we just place these straps around your arms is to avoid avoid any excess movement those aren't too tight oh no that's okay look the teacher we will read out some word pairs to you blue the learner is told is going to be asked a series of memory questions by the teacher he will have to remember word pairs and then correctly remember them when offered multiple choices if the answers incorrect you will receive an electric shock the teacher is then taken next door and shown the generator which ranges from 15 volts all the way up to a lethal 450 volts the domestic electricity supply in the UK is of course 240 volts our teachers are given the list of questions and told to increase the voltage each time the learner gets a question wrong they are then given an example of a low voltage shock and try and estimate in volts the amount of shock due to you getting okay oh do you know how much that was in us 75 it was actually 45 oh my god - to begin shoe horn steam the point of this test is to see whether the teachers our subjects will call a stop to the experiment or continue to the point where they are administering seemingly lethal electric shocks to the victims simply because the scientist is telling them - that's correct according to plan our accomplice provided many wrong answers each protest was coordinated to a particular shock voltage on the generator and his responses were played via a CD that's wrong 150 volts correct the correct answers captain shoe cup that's wrong 225 volts he's in a lot of pain continue please that he's not he's not comfortable we must continue to be in the experiment the lowlights a lot has to go on until he's learnt the words correctly okay forest that's wrong 240 volts are you sure that's not causing any lasting damage he sounds in like he's in a lot of pain but it shot smoking people are not home what does that mean though they're not harmful sorry I'm not not I'm not getting you when you say that they might be painful but not harmful tickles no long-term damage okay so what does that mean that it doesn't leave any scars it causes no damage it seems very that seems very cold and calculated to me this doesn't seem like a very anyway good golden that's wrong may 300 volts staple the options diet jar balcony bowl answer if the learner doesn't answer a reasonable time say four to five seconds and you have to treat the answer is wrong and follow that procedure did you hear that learner just any response may come on well guess please continue 345 volts if you're still with me I'm sorry but I can't do this honestly can we stop this experiment because I can't do this listen I might continue we'll have to discontinue the experiment yeah okay fine that's fine I'm not going to do this he correct 405 volts and sorry I then it is someone wanna check him so it says he's not making noise now and he was before and I'm quite happy to go on but just a little bit worried about your book continue there was a bit worried cuz he was like he was like complaining before about that but no harm no harm will come to visit he's not making a noise now it's essential that we continue with the experiment balcony he correct 450 volts if we promise he's not either one please continue with the procedure you say it hurts but isn't cuz it's like it says they're dangerous initial you'll be alright yeah please continue okay I think just continue the experiment then all of the subjects were told the true nature of the experiment was to see how they would respond to Authority and that it would eventually form part of this show is a game I can tell you it's absolutely for you actually weren't administering electric shocks at all in the original Milgram experiment psychologists were asked to predict how many people would continue to the point that they were administering the highest shock on the board their prediction was one tenth of one percent they were wrong the results of our experiment were almost identical to the original over fifty percent of participants continued up to 450 volts the majority of people will administer lethal electric shocks just because a guy in a white coat is telling them to 450 volts 450 volts 450 volts so 50 so after the result of the Milgram experiment I've now chosen my four subjects that will go forward for the heist ball is important Phil was impressively resourceful when he was caught stealing sweets and held in his anguish during the Milgram experiment rather than defy the scientist I did want to include a woman in the group Jen was the only subject to take a long time to recover after the Milgram experiment so I felt I shouldn't use her Veronica didn't steal from the shop so that left Vicki of all the subjects she was the only one to have known the original Milgram experiment and call a halt to her involvement in it can I just say I can't do this because I've heard of this experiment before so I think she'll be quite interesting to use although I don't know if to actually take the bait or not Alys stole most from the shop seems to be highly responsive most outgoing and seemed most happy to continue the experiment until he was stopped washing it made more notches on the thing Danny stopped the experiment but in such an outspoken way that I suspected he would have real strength of character to bring out it's not even reacting anymore I'm gonna teach them some genuine skills that I use peppered with some spurious pop psychology and quite a lot of very green is green

Channel: Derren Brown

Views: 973,682

Keywords: TheRobbery, TheHeist, Hypnosis, Milgrim, Experiment, SocialExperiment, Derren Brown, Derren, Brown, Magic, Illusion, Misdirection, Mind Control, Trick, Hustle, British, Derren Brown Trick, Derren Brown Watch Online, Derren Brown New, Derren Brown 2020, Derren Brown Mind Control, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Svengali, Psychic, Powers, Faith Healer, Trick of the Mind, Russian Roulette, Messiah, Netflix, Miracle, Mind Reader, Mind Blown, Close Up Magic, Street Magic, Supernatural, Experimenter

Id: Xxq4QtK3j0Y

Length: 10min 29sec (629 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 14 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/mikesum32]

Radio Lab's Who's Bad, cleared up something about the Milgram experiment (story starts around 8:45.) Specifically that there were multiple tests with different scenarios and varying levels of obedience.

[u/whyislifesoeasy]

This scares me more than anything.