This is part of an ongoing series of discussions with Cat regarding human behavior, particularly with regard to manipulating populations. The latest exhibit is a video of an experiment designed by Stanley Milgram and intended to study obedience in people. In the experiment a subject is told they are researching the effect of punishment on learning and the 'student' will learn through the administration of electric shocks. What the subject does not know is that the 'student' isn't being shocked at all and the study is really intended to understand the willingness in people to administer the shock. (DailyMotion: Stanley Milgram Obedience)
This discussion is an extensions on the themes of Hitler's execution of Jews, Facebook propaganda, The Third Wave, etc. Why is it so easy to manipulate people and how far will they go when you do it.
Based on Milgram's experiment, it becomes clear that there's a population of people who will resist the authority that tells them to administer the shock and they will refuse to continue. However, the interest focuses on the ones who will submit and continue administering the 'punishment' even when they have serious concerns about the welfare of the person receiving it. In one example, a fellow in a white shirt continues administering the electric shock for long after he has his initial concerns about the welfare of the 'student.' When asked why he didn't just stop he says the experimenter wouldn't let him.
The video shows the experimenter could not be much more passive or benign. He is simply insistent the experiment must continue. There is no threat of any consequence if the experiment stops, he simply insists to go forward with it with the only purpose being to understand when the subject will say stop. In a surprising number of people they did not stop.
It becomes more clear why the soldiers in the concentration camps went ahead with executing Jews and others when every human instinct tells them it is wrong. They are being told to do it after years of conditioning that Jews are bad people, they're responsible for the loss of WWI, etc, etc. Combine that conditioning with the authority of military command backed with extremely high power and it becomes easy to see why they did not resist. In this case, the authority is neither passive nor benign and even a relatively strong mind will fold in the face of that.
It is a mistake to conclude that I'm functioning as an apologist for Germany as that isn't my purpose at all. Germany is quite capable of making any apology it likes but that's irrelevant to the reason for writing as much more critical to me is the knowledge that any type of behavior, anywhere on the planet, can be induced by an authority figure. Germany is not unique and it's an incredibly dangerous assumption to ever think that way. The experiment shows conclusively the truth of this as it had nothing to do with Nazi Germany and the subjects were all Americans.
Perhaps you fancy you would not be affected by an unreasonable demand from an authority figure and perhaps that's true but more significant is the existence of a sub-population of people who will not resist. The success of the endless war on terrorism contradicts thinking that it's difficult to control people in this way. Terrorists have had no effect of any kind on the vast majority of people and yet very large societies are dominated by the fear of them. In this case, the passive and benign authority figure is the government and the consequence of failing to heed the authority figure is injury or death at the hands of terrorists, notwithstanding the fact that the probability of such an event is not statistically significant.
This discussion is an extensions on the themes of Hitler's execution of Jews, Facebook propaganda, The Third Wave, etc. Why is it so easy to manipulate people and how far will they go when you do it.
Based on Milgram's experiment, it becomes clear that there's a population of people who will resist the authority that tells them to administer the shock and they will refuse to continue. However, the interest focuses on the ones who will submit and continue administering the 'punishment' even when they have serious concerns about the welfare of the person receiving it. In one example, a fellow in a white shirt continues administering the electric shock for long after he has his initial concerns about the welfare of the 'student.' When asked why he didn't just stop he says the experimenter wouldn't let him.
The video shows the experimenter could not be much more passive or benign. He is simply insistent the experiment must continue. There is no threat of any consequence if the experiment stops, he simply insists to go forward with it with the only purpose being to understand when the subject will say stop. In a surprising number of people they did not stop.
It becomes more clear why the soldiers in the concentration camps went ahead with executing Jews and others when every human instinct tells them it is wrong. They are being told to do it after years of conditioning that Jews are bad people, they're responsible for the loss of WWI, etc, etc. Combine that conditioning with the authority of military command backed with extremely high power and it becomes easy to see why they did not resist. In this case, the authority is neither passive nor benign and even a relatively strong mind will fold in the face of that.
It is a mistake to conclude that I'm functioning as an apologist for Germany as that isn't my purpose at all. Germany is quite capable of making any apology it likes but that's irrelevant to the reason for writing as much more critical to me is the knowledge that any type of behavior, anywhere on the planet, can be induced by an authority figure. Germany is not unique and it's an incredibly dangerous assumption to ever think that way. The experiment shows conclusively the truth of this as it had nothing to do with Nazi Germany and the subjects were all Americans.
Perhaps you fancy you would not be affected by an unreasonable demand from an authority figure and perhaps that's true but more significant is the existence of a sub-population of people who will not resist. The success of the endless war on terrorism contradicts thinking that it's difficult to control people in this way. Terrorists have had no effect of any kind on the vast majority of people and yet very large societies are dominated by the fear of them. In this case, the passive and benign authority figure is the government and the consequence of failing to heed the authority figure is injury or death at the hands of terrorists, notwithstanding the fact that the probability of such an event is not statistically significant.
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