Milgram experiment facts for kids

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The Milgram experiment was a famous set of studies in psychology. They were done by a scientist named Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. Milgram wanted to understand why people sometimes follow orders, even if those orders feel wrong or go against their own feelings.

In his experiment, a volunteer was told by a scientist to give electric shocks to another person. The shocks were not real, but the volunteer thought they were. Milgram was surprised to find that most volunteers kept giving the "shocks" until the very end of the experiment. Many found it hard to do, but they still obeyed. Other scientists have done similar experiments since then, and they usually get the same results.

How the Experiment Worked

Participants were told they were helping with a "learning experiment." Each volunteer played the role of a "teacher." Their job was to ask questions to a "learner." If the learner answered wrong or didn't answer, the teacher had to press a switch to give them an electric shock. The "shocks" got stronger each time. In the first experiments, the teacher and learner were in different rooms but could hear each other.

Here's the secret: the electric shocks were not real. The "learners" were actually actors. They only pretended to be in pain. As the "shocks" got stronger, the actors cried out louder. They protested, hit the wall, and then stopped answering. The "shocks" eventually reached levels that would have been very dangerous if they were real. At this point, the "learner" would become silent.

Much was done to make the volunteers believe the experiment was real. When they arrived, they were told that the actor was another volunteer. They drew slips of paper to decide who would be the "teacher" and who would be the "learner." But both slips actually said "teacher," so the actor pretended to pick "learner." The electric shock machine looked real and made buzzing noises. It could even give a small, harmless 45-volt shock, which the teacher would try before the experiment began.

If a volunteer ("teacher") wanted to stop, the scientist had special things to say. These were called "verbal prods." The scientist had to say these in order:

• Please continue.
• The experiment requires that you continue.
• It is absolutely essential that you continue.
• You have no other choice, you must go on.

If the volunteer asked if the "learner" would be hurt, the scientist could say, "Although the shocks may be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on." If the volunteer still wanted to stop after all four main prods, the experiment ended. Otherwise, it stopped after the volunteer gave the highest "450-volt" shock three times.

What Milgram Found

Before the experiment, Milgram asked students at Yale University what they thought would happen. They guessed that only about 1% of volunteers would give the highest 450-volt shock. But in Milgram's first experiments, a surprising 65 percent (26 out of 40) of volunteers gave the full 450-volt shock. All of them gave a shock of at least 300 volts.

Milgram noticed that the "teachers" showed signs of stress and nervousness. They sweated, trembled, stuttered, and groaned. All of them stopped to question the experiment at some point. But most continued when the scientist told them it was okay or that they had to go on. Other scientists have done their own versions of Milgram's experiment and found very similar results.

Different Versions of the Experiment

After the first experiments, Milgram and other scientists tried different ways to do the study. Here are some of the things they found:

• The further away the volunteer was from the "learner," the more likely they were to obey. If the "learner" was in the same room, the volunteer was less likely to obey.
• The further away the volunteer was from the scientist, the less likely they were to obey. If the scientist gave orders over the phone, only about 21% of volunteers obeyed until the end. Some even pretended to obey.
• The first experiments used only men. Later versions showed that women were just as obedient as men, but they seemed to show more signs of stress.
• One version took place in a regular office building, not the famous Yale University. Volunteers were a little less likely to obey, but not by much.
• Several versions tried putting more people in the room:
  • If the volunteer was joined by an actor who acted like an obedient assistant, the volunteer was more likely to obey.
  • If the volunteer was joined by an actor who questioned the scientist and refused to continue, the volunteer was less likely to obey.
  • In another version, the volunteer only had a small task, while an actor gave the "electric shocks." Volunteers in this role were very likely to obey.

Why People Obeyed

Milgram wrote about his experiment in a book called Obedience to Authority: an experimental view in 1974. He suggested two main ideas:

• The first idea is conformism. This means people tend to do what others around them are doing.
• The second idea is the agentic state theory. This means people become obedient when they feel like they are just "agents" or tools carrying out someone else's orders. One big reason many volunteers continued was that they were told they would not be responsible for any harm to the "learner."

Some researchers also pointed out that people learn to trust experts. They might think that if an expert tells them something is okay, it probably is, even if it feels wrong. In this experiment, the scientist was indeed correct that no real harm would come to the "learner," even though the volunteers didn't know why.

In Pop Culture

The Milgram experiment has been mentioned many times in movies, books, and TV shows. For example, in the graphic novel V for Vendetta, a character named Dr. Surridge says he lost faith in people because of the experiment. In 2013, there was even a conference about it at Nipissing University in Canada.

See also

In Spanish: Experimento de Milgram para niños