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Comment by JackCh

> "Milgram's have been backed up by many replications"

From Behind the Shock Machine by Gina Perry:

>On the recording, a much younger Hannah sounded perky and confident as she talked to Williams at the beginning of the experiment. But you could hear her confidence getting shakier once the learner started to give incorrect answers, and it became clear that his memory was not reliable. By the third shock, 45 volts, she was stumbling over the words. At the fifth shock, 75 volts, when the learner made his first sound of discomfort, there was a pause. Then I heard the following exchange.

>Hannah: [to Williams] Is he all right? [into the microphone] The correct one was "hair". [to Williams] Is he all right?

>Williams: Yes, please continue.

>Hannah: All right.

To put it lightly, the Milgram experiments were trash. It was measuring trust in scientists not compliance to authorities. What undergrads are taught about Milgram is that the experimenter would ask the teacher to "Please continue" but what actually happened here is the experimenter assured the teacher (Hannah) that the learner was all right. The experimenters played fast and loose with the procedure, saying whatever they thought was necessary to get the teacher to continue. And sometimes it wasn't even measuring trust in scientists; there is at least one learner who recalls the experimenter, in response to their protests, asking if they'd like to swap places with the learner (essentially threatening the teacher to get them to comply.) The experimenters and particularly Milgram knew what results they wanted before the experimentation even began, and made sure they got those results.

parent JackCh 8 years ago

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