Full Blog: Obedience to Authority

Reference Information

Title: Obedience to Authority

Author: Stanley Milgram

Publisher: 2009 Harper Perennial Modern Classics

Summary
Obedience to Authority discussed the shock experiments of Stanley Milgram, and the results of obedience being prevalent. The book thoroughly discussed each of the variations of the experiment and the results of the experiments, including some personal stories of those involved in the experiments. The author even suggested theories about obedience to authority that came about from the results of the experiments.

The basic premise of the experiment: A subject shocking a victim (actually an actor), at the orders of an experimenter (the authority figure). Source: psychcentral.com

The terms obedience and authority were defined as they relate to Milgram's experiment. The experiment itself was thoroughly discussed, including its methods, the participants, the people playing roles within the experiment, and the methods of obtaining data (observation and interviewing). To obtain a baseline for analyzing the data, hypotheses were gathered from an impartial audience to determine what others believed the results of the experiment would be, including asking them to describe what they would do in the situation and what they thought others would be likely to do.

One of the variations of the experiment was variations of the closeness of the victim, including voice feedback, proximity, and touch-proximity. As the victim was brought closer, obedience increased. Other variations include moving the location of the experiment, giving a heart condition to the victim, changing the personnel and their personalities, altering the closeness of the authority figure, observing women as subjects, limiting contact of the victim, and allowing the subject to choose the level of shock. More experiments change the roles of those involved in it, such as having the learner demand to be shocked, an ordinary person giving orders, the subject as a bystander, the authority as victim, and contradicting authorities. Group effects were considered as well, running experiments with peers that tended to lead to the subject following the same action.

Hierarchical structures of obedience and authority were defined and thoroughly examined, including looking at the cybernetic view of an evolving organism moving from autonomous functioning to functioning within an organization. The factors of authority were also considered, including conditions that cause an individual to enter into an hierarchy of authority and the binding factors that keep them obeying the authority. Strain was also defined and how it factored into the experiment, including factors that generate strain and methods of reducing or eliminating it (such as disobedience). Aggression was also defined, in consideration for being an alternative cause of obedience, but it was ultimately disregarded for the overwhelming idea of authority.

Finally, the author considered criticisms of his experiment, including generalizing the data, having atypical participants in the experiment, and the participants not thinking the victim was actually being shocked. However, Milgram denied each of these, citing experimental results to refute the claims.


Discussion
I found this book to be very interesting. The chapter about Milgram's shock experiment in Opening Skinner's Box was the first that I had heard of this experiment, and I found it very thought-provoking and interesting from there. Because of that, I found it interesting to read about the experiments in more detail. In particular, I liked reading about the many variations of the experiment that occurred, and how each variation affected the results. The idea that the proximity of authority and the influence of peers affected participants' actions so much seems rather pivotal. I know that advertising and such often takes advantage of this, but I wonder how it could be applied in computer science terms? Maybe having "peers" that have already used a confusing piece of software could influence a non-user to also use and enjoy the software. Although that practice would probably just encourage sloppy design.