Human Nature as Revealed From the Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo Experiments

Milgram used three people to conduct the experiment. Two were volunteers while he took the position of the person holding the highest authority. One person, a learner, was placed in a different room while the other, teacher, was in another. The teacher was supposed to ask the learner some questions and provide four options to choose as the answer. If the learner made a wrong answer, the teacher was supposed to press the electric power cables that would cause shock on the student. They were supposed to increase the voltage as the number of wrong answers increased. Some teachers were unwilling to continue when they heard the screams of the learner but were prompted to continue from Milgram who held the authoritative position. A large percent of the teachers continued despite being aware they were inflicting pain on another. In reality, the learners were not getting any form of electric short since it was a social experiment.

The videos display different characteristics of human nature and their ethical behavior. Generally, human beings tend to obey those in authority and hold a higher position than then. They are willing to go to great lengths to obey irrespective of the destruction they might be causing the rest of the world. for instance, children in a school set up are conditioned to obey their teachers and will do what it takes to ensure they have done what they were instructed at the beginning. The internal desire for most people is fulfill the goals the person having authority over them had in the beginning. Hence, commitment and obedience is paramount in this case. Further, the choice of words from a person of authority to the subjects determines whether they obey and follow the instructions or not. Generally, people tend to respect the commanding voice as opposed to a soft voice. For instance, in the Milgram experiment, when the words the experiment requires you to continue were used, the teachers continued asking their subjects questions. They had no choice but to obey the request.

The videos reveal that it is within the human nature to prevent inducing pain on another individual if they had the choice. The teachers were not ready to go on with the experiment after they had the screams of pain from the learner. They believed that the person on the other end was also unwilling to continue due to the pain they felt. It is ethical to sympathizing with others. In the Stanford prison experiment, Zimbardo noted that the internal characteristics of an individual affect the behavior a person displays. This means that people holding power in some form are willing to inflict pain to others, who are their subjects, to some extent as long as they obey the instructions from their bosses. The power of authority has influence on the behavior of people. it is evident that demeaning people in a higher rank than another has an effect on what they think of themselves. For instance, in the prison experiment, the guards referred to the prisoners by number tags as opposed to their names. This made the prisoners feel less important and ultimately, they started obeying those in a higher authority than then. The wardens were willing to disrespect the prisoners despite that being an unethical behavior.

References

Milgram, S. (2010). YouTube [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/eTX42lDwA4

Zimbardo, P. (2010). YouTube [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/L_LKzEqPto