Question

First look up stanley milgram obedience study video. .

1.Imagine you are a participant in the Milgram study of obedience. As the study progresses and it becomes clear you are causing pain to the subject, how do you think you would respond?

2. Is there any difference between the subjects in the Milgram study who shocked the ‘actors,’ and the soldiers who abused prisoners at Abu Ghaib?

It’s only important you answer the questions well, using the new critical thinking skills you’ve learned in this lesson. Remember not to rely on opinions or feelings, use logic and research in your answers. Be open to any conclusions that thinking critically helps you arrive at. That is, be willing to surprise yourself.

HEY! As an instructor I’m a form of authority. As a critical thinker you should avoid deferring to authority simply for authority’s sake, and think for yourself. If you think question #1 was unfair, or impossible to answer, you can argue it was unfair by using your critical thinking skills instead of answering the question itself.

Answer 1

1. If i was a subject in the Milgrams study, i would have shocked the participants when the instructions were given by the authority figure, as i would trust the authority figure to make the right decision. Also, as the experiment was being conducted in a prestigious institution i would have cooperated. But, when it became clear the the subject was feeling pain, i would disagree to continue and i would question the experimenter about the study and would leave the study. This would probably happen because after a certain point i would take the responsibility upon my own self rather than relying on experimenter, and would feel guilty for the pain i had caused.

2. Abu Ghraib and Milgrams study were very similar in nature. As, in the Milgrams study, the volunteers said that they were just following orders and in the Abu Ghraib situation also the soldiers said that they were following orders. In both the cases the people were given full licence to go ahead and inflict harm, which made the participants and soldiers to not take the responsibility upon themselves, instead they justified their behaviour by assigning responsibility to the authority figures. Also, in both cases they were encouraged to to harm the people, and were provided encouragement when they did so. They also did not want to look bad and oppose the authority and said that they were just doing what they were asked to do.