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The purpose of Milgram’s experiment was to determine to what extent would subjects referred to as “teachers” be willing to comply with orders of authority, even if it meant imposing harsh bodily harm on subjects referred to as “learners”. The experiment was conducted at Yale University and it involved two sets of subjects, teachers and learners. The learners were in fact the confederates where as the teachers, who were the focus of the experiment, were just ordinary people who decided to participate. When taken into the room subjects are explained that they are participating in an experiment on effects of punishment on learning. Subject are then explained that teacher is to read a list of things to learner and then to ask him questions about the list. If the learner answers correctly teacher is to move on, where as if the answer is wrong teacher is to shock learner using the electric shock generator. After both parties agreed the learner is strapped into a chair and the teacher is led to a room where he is seated in front of a large shock generator. First thing the teacher notices is a large horizontal line of switches ranging from 15 volts all the way up to 450 volts, and so there would be no confusion they are also labeled as slight shock, severe shock and so on to DANGER-SEVERE SHOCK. Teacher is explained that for every wrong answer he is to move up in increments of 15 volts. And the experiment begins. At 75 volts learner grunts and at 150 volts he demands to be released from experiment. Experimenter on the other hand is urging teacher to continue. “You must go on”, “ The experiment requires that you go on”, is what the teacher is hearing. At what point will he decide to disobey the experimenter and quit the experiment? The results of experiment are overwhelming and they surprised even Milgram. 65% of teachers obeyed experimenter’s orders and proceeded with experiment to the end shocking the learner with 450 volts. Results shocked Milgram and he decided to proceed with the experiment, making some variations. Here are the results of experiments with different procedures: Physical contact with victim 30% Experimenter in remote location 21.5% After conducting all of these additional experiments Milgram concluded that obedience is dependent on four factors: 1. Victims emotional distance. Obedience dropped when learners were in the same room with teachers and it dropped even more when teacher was forced to push learner’s hand onto a shock plate. 2. Whether or not the authority is institutionalized. When the experiment was moved from Yale University to a remote office building obedience once again dropped. 3. Authority’s closeness. When the experimenter was giving orders over the phone or was not giving orders at all obedience dropped drastically. 4. Authority’s legitimacy. The fourth factor for determining obedience is legitimacy. When the experimenter who originally started giving orders left in the middle of experiment and his position was assumed by another person whose authority was not conceived as legitimate, obedience once again dropped. Milgram’s experiments conclude that an average person is likely to comply with orders of authority no matter the consequences. The results are hard to believe. This would mean that our next door neighbor, a family man with two kids a dog and a station wagon is capable of murder. Or maybe family doctor or pharmacist are as well. Had I not been in situation to see what all people are capable of, I myself would doubt the evidence. War in Bosnia broke out just as I was about to be fourteen years old. One night I went to sleep clueless, only to waken up by gunfire around 3a.m. Shooting was over by 6:30 a.m., for Bosnian army was too weak for the Serbs in this part of Bosnia. At 7 a.m. Serbian news crew announces that now it is safe to go outside, since Muslim “fundamentalists” have been defeated. My mother and father, both Muslims, leave for work only to come back an hour latter after finding out that both of them have been fired. I could understand about my mother for she was a prosecutor for the government of Bosnia, something Serbs did not recognize, but my father owned his own company. Serbian officer told that his company is being confiscated until further notice. We still haven’t received any. Around 11 a.m. my parents decided it is safe for me to go outside and so I went. What I saw on the streets was astounding. Hundreds, of people in Serbian Army uniforms. Among them I saw my next door neighbor, a guy with two kids, a dog and a station wagon. There was also our doctor, and a lady pharmacist, all in uniforms and all armed. What happened after that is a whole other story. These people who before this war broke out were my parents friends and seemed like nice people were capable of most heinous crimes. After being taken to the concentration camp I found out to what extent will people obey authority. There are numerous examples, none necessarily better then the others but this particular one sticks to my mind. It was one of the Serbian religious holidays, and traditionally they make bonfires on it. So after a whole day of drinking and partying soldiers brought out these huge truck tires and after being ordered by so by the officer, they set them on fire. Then they were ordered, by the same officer to select three prisoners out of the group of us. All of the prisoners, including myself and my father, were outside whole day, forced to watch them party, eat and drink while we were starved. So three prisoners were selected and brought out before the officer, who then ordered the soldiers to beat the down. All the while we were watching, thee innocent men, two of them in their mid twenties were being savagely beaten by a group of Serbian soldiers. After the men could no longer get up officer ordered the soldiers to throw the onto the burning tires. That is the first time I saw two of the soldiers hesitate. They stepped back for a second, until the officer gave out the order again. By this time couple of guys that were being beaten were regaining their conscience, but they could not resist the soldiers, weak as they were. Third guy, never regaining his conscience, God knows if he was even alive, was thrown in first and dyed without even knowing what happened to him. I wish the other two had the same luck. Without any regard to their agonizing screams soldiers threw them in the fire and pushed them back every time they tried to get out. Officer just stood there observing. Once their whole bodies were caught on fire soldiers let them get out and roll on the ground. They watched them suffer and burn not even trying to end their suffering. The ones who seemed to want to do it were either ordered not to by the officers there or by other soldiers. This is just one of many horrifying stories describing to what extent will a person obey the orders of an authority. Examples of it may be found all around us and although most of them will not be as extreme as the ones I encountered in Bosnia, it is horrifying to know that a person will go that far in obeying someone else. Milgram’s experiment was really represented in real life in Bosnia. The factors that according to Milgram determine obedience were also represented in Bosnia. Authority’s closeness and legitimacy were very important, for had the officers had not been there these soldiers would not have done it. Authority was definitely institutionalized because the authority in this case was the Serbian Army. In conclusion, even though most people seem independent and seem as if they would know the right from wrong they are still likely to comply with the authority. As proved by Milgram’s experiments and as I had first hand experience living in Bosnia during the war, if the authority meets certain requirements, that is it legitimate and institutionalized it is more than likely to followed by ordinary people. Bibliography: Word Count: 1467
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