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Milgram and Brandt
May. 27th, 2011 07:41 pmI don't actually expect anyone reading this to not be familiar with Stanley Milgram's study on obedience to authority. ( Nonetheless, I'm putting a quick summary under the cut in case I'm mistaken. )
Milgram asked around before the experiment--psychiatrists, college sophomores, middle-class adults, graduate students and faculty in the behavioral sciences--and generally got the response that most subjects would not administer a shock higher than 150 volts; that only 4% would go up to 300 volts; that only one in a thousand would administer a 450 volt shock. He expected most people would hit a point where they just weren't comfortable with the experiment anymore and would calmly and politely refuse to keep shocking the learner.
...oh, Milgram, you optimist. (Twenty-five out of forty people administered the 450 volt shock three times, after which the session was finished. Some subsequent experiments actually resulted in a higher percentage of subjects who did that.)
Anyway.
I was thinking of Gretchen Brandt again today. The names were changed, so it's not her real one, but it's the only designation I have. At the administration of 210 volts (that's the phrasing from Obedience to authority; I don't know if it means she administered that shock or not), she refused.
And she kept refusing, calmly and politely, in the face of "the experiment requires" and "it is absolutely essential" and "You have no other choice."
I think about her, sometimes. And I'm glad she stopped. It's something that gives me hope, in an odd way, a concrete example of people refusing to do harm despite really quite heavy pressure.
Milgram asked around before the experiment--psychiatrists, college sophomores, middle-class adults, graduate students and faculty in the behavioral sciences--and generally got the response that most subjects would not administer a shock higher than 150 volts; that only 4% would go up to 300 volts; that only one in a thousand would administer a 450 volt shock. He expected most people would hit a point where they just weren't comfortable with the experiment anymore and would calmly and politely refuse to keep shocking the learner.
...oh, Milgram, you optimist. (Twenty-five out of forty people administered the 450 volt shock three times, after which the session was finished. Some subsequent experiments actually resulted in a higher percentage of subjects who did that.)
Anyway.
I was thinking of Gretchen Brandt again today. The names were changed, so it's not her real one, but it's the only designation I have. At the administration of 210 volts (that's the phrasing from Obedience to authority; I don't know if it means she administered that shock or not), she refused.
And she kept refusing, calmly and politely, in the face of "the experiment requires" and "it is absolutely essential" and "You have no other choice."
I think about her, sometimes. And I'm glad she stopped. It's something that gives me hope, in an odd way, a concrete example of people refusing to do harm despite really quite heavy pressure.
