Shocking indeed

I recently read Thomas Blass’ The Man Who Shocked The World: The Life And Legacy Of Stanley Milgram. The book follows Stanley Milgram’s life and controversial experiments. The following are some of my thoughts on this book about an interesting man’s life. Please enjoy.

Common assumption: if someone does something then there is probably a good reason for what they have done. This certainly seemed to be the case in the subway experiments where people gave up their seats when asked but given no explanation.

An interesting point was brought up by Milgram when he was in a hospital. While he was recuperating from a heart attack, some of the hospital staff members were on strike and banging on metal drums outside the hospital. Stanley felt that the noise disturbed the patients more than it did the working hospital staff, and he wondered how people that normally cared for patients could do such a thing.

There is a loss of self that occurs when an individual merges into an organizational structure. Obligations are diffused among a group's members. Beware people passing the blame by referring to the obedience studies. Should people not be held responsible just because someone of authority instructed them to do behave in a certain way? Should not both be held accountable? Surely it is easier to obey when the instructor claims responsibility for the outcome. Perhaps obedience can act as a gateway for hatred: at first some feelings of guilt, then total desensitization, followed by embracing the experience with your fellows.

A few questions to think about…
Would people obey a computer?
What if they believed that the words from the computer came from an authoritative figure?
Obedience is necessary for society to function. How are we to know when it is ok to obey and when is not?
Are people more likely to obey commands to be mean or to be nice?

A nice quote from page 551
"Social norms can often have a compelling effect on our behavior, wielding their power by means of unexpected amounts of inhibitory anxiety generated by their violation."

Scary but true. Why do we feel the need for acceptance? Is it natural or is it a learned behavior?

I have thought about these questions, but I believe it would take up too much space for a blog post to thoroughly expand upon and explain my thoughts on these questions.