In his defense, Milgram was not unconcerned about the effects of the experience on his participants. And in follow-up questionnaires, the vast majority of his participants said they were pleased they had been part of the research and thought similar experiments should be conducted in the future.
did he debrief them fully at the end and show them that the learner is okay?
Finally, Milgram found that women participants followed the experimenter’s instructions at exactly the same rate the men had.
this is interesting, my intuition would be that women would not follow it to such an extent
These were not brutal, sadistic men.
did they test them previously? did they have any information about their condition?
“You have no other choice, you must go on.”
this is against research ethics, as it forces people to do something they don't want to do, there is no informed consent
In all but one variation of the basic procedure, participants were men recruited from the community surrounding Yale University, where the research was carried out.
how would the results be different with different demographic groups (women, children, elderly...)
In the name of “following orders” or “just doing my job,” people can violate ethical principles and break laws.
in Harry Potter, there is a curse called 'Imperius', which can control people. Often people have said that they only did bad things because they were being controlled and there is no way to find out for sure. HP is also meant to be a metaphor for WW2 (Voldemort = Hitler, Muggles = Jews)
They notice the boisterous heavy drinker at the party but fail to consider all the students not attending the party.
availability heuristic - they only consider the information available to them, which makes their perception inaccurate
A good example of how misperceived norms can lead to problems is found in research on binge drinking among college students.
in my school, it's also excessive studying and lack of sleep
That is, we act the way most people—or most people like us—act. This is not an unreasonable strategy. Other people often have information that we do not, especially when we find ourselves in new situations.
reminds me of the teenage girls in a gallery in the video about NYC in the previous module (Conformity: Investigate)
more conformity is found in collectivist countries such as Japan and China than in individualistic countries such as the United States
I have seen this when I compare my trips to India and to the US. In India, people mostly dress according to norms, in traditional and very modest clothing. In the US, people dress however they want to and most people don't even notice them.
His eyes told him one thing, but five out of five people apparently saw something else.
This reminds me of a story - "The Emperor's New Clothes". In the story, the emperor was naked but he said only intelligent people can see his clothes. Nobody wanted to seem stupid, so nobody said anything except a little boy. After he said that the emperor is naked, everyone was relieved that they were actually correct and started laughing. It only takes one person for others to join and express their true thoughts.
The first of these is normative influence. When normative influence is operating, people go along with the crowd because they are concerned about what others think of them. We don’t want to look out of step or become the target of criticism just because we like different kinds of music or dress differently than everyone else. Fitting in also brings rewards such as camaraderie and compliments.
connected to social exchange theory. I will not do what I truly want to, but I will gain reputation and social benefits.
humans may possess an inherent tendency to imitate the actions of others. Although we usually are not aware of it, we often mimic the gestures, body posture, language, talking speed, and many other behaviors of the people we interact with.
I also heard that partners start to look alike after some time spent together, mostly because they mimic each other's gestures and facial expressions.
Similarly, decisions about behaviors such as smoking and drinking are influenced by whether the people we spend time with engage in these activities.
often influenced by our desire to belong and peer pressure
But our views on political issues, religious questions, and lifestyles also reflect to some degree the attitudes of the people we interact with.
I heard an interesting thing once: You are the 5 people you spend the most time with. I think it is true that others' opinions and feelings affect our identity a lot more than we admit.
ethical treatment of participants in psychology experiments.
in AP Psychology, we learned about ethical guidelines that are set, informed consent, debriefing, etc.
This danger was illustrated in a famous study in which participants were instructed to administer painful electric shocks to another person in what they believed to be a learning experiment.
Milgram experiment
This process was demonstrated in a classic study in which college students deliberately gave wrong answers to a simple visual judgment task rather than go against the group.
Solomon Asch experiment?
We often change our attitudes and behaviors to match the attitudes and behaviors of the people around us. One reason for this conformity is a concern about what other people think of us.
similar to the 'social actor' role discussed in the previous module (Self and Society)
Moreover, when you try to change your self in some way, what is it that you are trying to change?
This is an interesting thought. I have never really thought of it this way and it's quite mindblowing.
First, the self may be seen as a social actor, who enacts roles and displays traits by performing behaviors in the presence of others.
This is what happens on social media and in life in general. People usually want to be seen in a positive light to receive good reputation etc (social exchange)