1963 Milgram Experiments on Power of Authority Still Prove Viable

ADAM COHEN of the New York Times reports: The shocking truth that a recent replication of the Milgram experiment, originally conducted in 1963, which demonstrated "that ordinary people were willing to administer a lot of pain to innocent strangers if an authority figure instructed them to do so." Has shown that participants produced " results (that) were nearly identical to Professor Milgram’s. Santa Clara University's Professor Jerry Burger conducted the replication of the Milgram research with "one slight change in the protocol, in deference to ethical standards developed since 1963. He stopped when a participant believed he had administered a 150-volt shock. (He also screened out people familiar with the original experiment.)" There is little doubt that "(m)uch has changed since 1963. The civil rights and antiwar movements taught Americans to question authority. Institutions that were once accorded great deference — including the government and the military — are now eyed warily. Yet it appears that ordinary Americans are about as willing to blindly follow orders to inflict pain on an innocent stranger as they were four decades ago." The Milgram and Burger experiments clearly demonstrates the tendency of individuals' to willfully accept the commands of authority figures "to inflict abuse on others." To this writer, the experiment's results give people an even greater right if not duty to question authority when dealing with questionable orders.