“It is ironic that virtues of loyalty, discipline, and self-sacrifice that we value so highly in the individual are the very properties that create destructive organizational engines of war and bind men to malevolent systems of authority. The aftermath of the Holocaust and the events leading up to World War II, the world was stunned with the happenings in Nazi German and their acquired surrounding territories that came out during the Eichmann Trials. Eichmann, a high ranking official of the Nazi Party, was on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The questions is, “Could it be that Eichmann, and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?” (Milgram, 1974)

Milgram answered the call to this problem by performing a series of studies on obedience to authority. Typically, two individuals show up for a study and are taken to a room where one is strapped in a chair to prevent movement and an electrode is placed on his arm. Next, the other person who is called the “teacher” is taken to an adjoining room where he is instructed to read a list of two word pairs and ask the “learner” to read them back. If the “learner” gets the answer correct, then they move on to the next word. If the answer is incorrect, the “teacher” is supposed to shock the “learner” starting at 15 volts and going up to 450 volts, in 15 volt increments. The “teacher” automatically is supposed to increase the shock each time the “learner” misses a word in the list. Although the “teachers” thought that they were administering shocks to the “learners”, the “learners” were actually confederates who were never actually harmed.

The theory that only those on the sadistic fringe of society would submit to such cruelty is disclaimed. Findings show that, “two-thirds of this studies participants fall into the category of  ‘obedient’ subjects, and that they represent ordinary people drawn from the working, managerial, and professional classes”. Ultimately 65% of all of the “teachers” punished the “learners” to the maximum 450 volts. (Milgram, 1974)

According to Milgram, every human has the dual capacity to function as an individual exercising his or her own moral judgement and the capacity to make their own moral decisions based on their personal character. What is still a mystery is this, what happens to the average person who is obedient to authority when it overrides their own moral judgement?”

The above text is an excerpt from a summary about Stanley Milgram’s Theory of Obedience (read the rest here).

Seeing as power, authority, domination and subjugation are things I think about a lot, I’ll just say this: When someone has “authority” over someone else, their relationship changes. When “authority” is present, it means the subordinate is naturally inferior to the superior, in some way shape or form. I would would argue that even if there is a hint of superior/inferior play happening, this naturally leads to the outcome that Milgam witnesses in his controversial experiments. Scary indeed.

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Collaborative painting above by JULIE EVANS + AJAY SHARMA

Tags:Ajay SharmaJulie EvenspowerStanley MilgramSubordinationTheory of Obedience