# The Milgram Experiment -- Has it been run recently? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002 "2019-03-12T15:11:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/21 "2019-03-12T23:07:12Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The subjects being the shockers or the shockees? The shockees don’t have to be shocked at all, although one criticism is that pretending that they were was not realistic enough, but that could be fixed with some training. I can see some psychological harm to the actual subjects, the shockers, but not so terrible assuming they understood what they were being asked to do and then they are told what the experiment actually was about afterwards. The people who thought they were administering electric shocks. One of the criticisms of the experiment was that the participants were unable to give informed consent and that they very well might have learned some very unpleasant truths about themselves that they perhaps did not want to know. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/22 "2019-03-12T23:07:51Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > They replicated the experiment in Poland in 2017 and did a partial replication in the US in 2009. They found similar results to the first one both times. There was a whole separate sub-text that prevented the experiments being repeated earlier. In the light of which, the replication in Poland was particularly interesting. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/23 "2019-03-12T23:09:29Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > The people who thought they were administering electric shocks. One of the criticisms of the experiment was that the participants were unable to give informed consent and that they very well might have learned some very unpleasant truths about themselves that they perhaps did not want to know. I agree. I think those things can be fixed. But first I’d like to know a good reason for running this test again. What does anyone expect to learn from it. What hypothesis is being tested here? Does anyone expect a significant difference in the results? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/24 "2019-03-13T01:13:22Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > …they very well might have learned some very unpleasant truths about themselves that they perhaps did not want to know. Wait. What? See, this is why I said earlier I have trouble with ethics. Because I never would have guessed giving someone the truth would be considered unethical. I would argue the exact opposite here in fact. Seems like it would be a boon to everyone if we knew just how easily a good person can slip into a passive evil role. Now I’m inclined to promote incorporating this ‘experiment’ into mandatory 3rd grade education. Only mostly joking. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/25 "2019-03-13T01:19:35Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Wait. What? See, this is why I said earlier I have trouble with ethics. Because I never would have guessed giving someone the truth would be considered unethical. I would argue the exact opposite here in fact. Seems like it would be a boon to everyone if we knew just how easily a good person can slip into a passive evil role. Now I’m inclined to promote incorporating this ‘experiment’ into mandatory 3rd grade education. Only mostly joking. From the Wikipedia article: > [@](#): > > The Milgram Shock Experiment raised questions about the research ethics of scientific experimentation because of the extreme emotional stress and inflicted insight suffered by the participants… > > On June 10, 1964, the American Psychologist published a brief but influential article by Diana Baumrind titled “Some Thoughts on Ethics of Research: After Reading Milgram’s’ Behavioral Study of Obedience.'” Baumrind’s criticisms of the treatment of human participants in Milgram’s studies stimulated a thorough revision of the ethical standards of psychological research. > **[Milgram experiment](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment)** > > Beginning on August 7, 1961, a series of social psychology experiments were conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, who intended to measure the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to a "learner". These sham or fake electric shocks gradually in... ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/26 "2019-03-13T01:27:38Z")
Inflicted insight. Imma weaponize that. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/27 "2019-03-13T01:32:46Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Now I’m inclined to promote incorporating this ‘experiment’ into mandatory 3rd grade education. Only mostly joking. That would be[Jane Elliott](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott). Can someone with a psychology/sociology background tell me what the current thinking is about doing that to eight-year old kids without their parents’ knowledge or consent? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/28 "2019-03-13T01:45:14Z")
There was also The Third Wave experiment.[The Third Wave (experiment) - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(experiment)) ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/29 "2019-03-13T07:58:25Z")
I don’t intend to threadshit, but replicating the exact experiment is of questionable utility. The generation of Americans informed by the Milgram experiment and the Stanford prison experiment, witness to the My Lai massacre, happily/blindly perpetuated black sites, Guantanamo, and rubberstamped the second Iraq war. These experiments were fait accompli to people who were taught realpolitik or experienced firsthand military conflicts in the first half of the twentieth century. Only the naive wondered how those good Christian white people could tolerate and then participate in the Nazi regime. Humans are animals, and brittle ideas like empirical insight and brotherly love, are easily forgotten. I would continue, but I am depressing myself. Humans are of nature, red in tooth and claw, and proving that empirically every few years won’t change human attitudes about territory, food, and other resources. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/30 "2019-03-14T00:33:00Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > […] Only the naive wondered how those good Christian white people could tolerate and then participate in the Nazi regime. > […] Actually, no. And the statement shows an interesting ignorance of mid-20th-century thought. How old are you? What is your background? ---
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002/31 "2019-03-14T15:49:53Z")
A version of the experiment was performed at the University of Georgia circa 1983. Students in Psychology 101 were required to “volunteer” in a certain number of postgraduate experiments and you didn’t know the nature of the experiment until you showed up. I arrived for one and the grad student researcher was very rude, chastising me for not bringing a pencil, etc. We proceeded with the experiment, which had me choosing how much to shock a person on the other side of a window when he gave incorrect answers to questions. I had not yet learned about the Milgram experiment, so I didn’t realize this was related. It turned out that many of these experiments involved deception of the student participants, with the researchers studying something other than what it seemed. In this case, they were testing whether a subject would deliver more shocks if he were pissed off or otherwise upset when the experiment began. The researchers were rude and abusive to some subjects, nice and flattering with others. I wasn’t actually shocking anyone, of course, but I thought I was. I didn’t deliver very much shock. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milgram-experiment-has-it-been-run-recently/831002.md?page=1)