Analysis of Milgram's Experiment

As the world attempted to make sense of the Holocaust, Milgram’s research on obedience offered a persuasive and disturbing explanation for how ordinary humans could commit such terrible atrocities. Milgram recruited participants from diverse socioeconomic and educational backgrounds (Blass, 1991). These participants were told they were involved in research related to learning. Throughout the duration of the original research, experimenters, dressed in white lab coats, gave verbal indications to continue when subjects expressed hesitation. 65% of the participants were willing to administer the punitive electric shocks to an almost lethal level. Milgram’s studies on obedience provide support for the concept that situational factors often have a greater effect on human behavior than personality or individual characteristics. The participants in the Milgram’s research were typical individuals drawn from normal society, but they were able to carry out heinous acts against fellow humans when provided with instructions from an authority, mirroring the behavior of Nazis against the Jews during the Holocaust.

Milgram’s research in the laboratory setting cannot be generalized to provide an understanding of the behavior of Nazis, and such findings on obedience discount the other important factors involved in promoting atrocities during the Holocaust. Cialdini & Goldstein described some important differences between the obedience observed in Milgram’s experiments and the actions taken by Nazis (2004). Milgram’s subjects were opposed to the electric shocks and often visible discomfort was observed when they followed through with their cruel tasks, but the actions during the Holocaust were done willingly and mostly with indifference to pain and suffering of victims. The type of authority is different in Milgram’s experiments from what was seen during the Holocaust. In Milgram’s experiments, the authority was viewed as an expert, differing from the authority...