Milgrim's Study
Storyboard Text
- $4.50
- Volunteer Today For Research Study on Memory at Yale University
- It is absolutely essential that you should continue.
- I don't regret taking part in the experiment or anything I did ... I'm so relieved it's over and wasn't real. I've learnt something about myself.
- The experiment was actually about obedience and we wanted to see how far you would go to obey- no one was actually electric shocked.
- 40 men volunteered (aged 20-50)- responded to newspaper ad.Research was conducted at Yale University America.They were paid $4.50 dollars just for showing up- payment did not depend on staying in the study.Upon arrival, they were told that there would be two participants a "learner" and a "teacher". The experimenter drew lots to see which participant would take which part however it was rigged. The true participant was always given the role of "teacher".The other participant was in fact a confederate of the experimenter and the "experimenter " was also a confederate.They were told the experiment was about memory and learning - the design of the experiment was "single blind". The participant was not told the true details of the research (form of deception).
- Volunteer was first given a shock of 15 volts to show them how the shock box worked.Each time learner was wrong the voltage of the shock increased by an increment of 15 volts (small increments)- voltage started at 15 volts and went up to 450 volts.The experimenter stood in the room with the volunteer, wore a white lab coat and provided prompts every time the volunteer seemed unwilling to give the shocks and continue experiment- "It is absolutely essential that you should continue." - "Although painful, the shocks cause no permanent tissue damage"180 volts- learner yelled "I cant stand the pain" and at 270 volts the response became an agonised scream and at 300 volts the learner stopped responding Some participants found the experiment very distressing and were seen to " sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig their fingernails into their flesh" and 3 participant were reported to have experienced "full-blown uncontrollable seizures".
- Milgrim asked 14 psychology students what they though the participants would do and they predicted that no more than 3% of participants would give the maximum shock of 450 volts. (26 out of 40) 65% of participants went all the way with the electric shocks, delivering the full 450 volts.(14 out of 40) 35% of participants were not fully obedient and refused to continue some point after 300 volts.(5 out of 40) 12.5% of participants stopped at 300 volts.At the end of the experiment all participants were debriefed (form of consent) and told the true nature of the study- introduced to learner and assured that they received no shocks.74% of participants said they'd learned something of personal importance from the experiment and only one person expressed regret at having taken part
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