Question

Peer rewiev

Was Stanley Milgram’s Study of Obedience Unethical?

I believe Milligram's study of obedience was unethical. Not only was it deceptive, the participants were pressured to continue and many of the teachers were under a great deal of stress because of it. I know that the experiment was on obedience but the BPS states that researchers are responsible to fully inform participants of their right to withdraw from the experiment at any time. The participants were allowed to withdraw, but they were under a great deal of pressure to continue even when they didn't want to. Deception is lying, and it is always better to be truthful. Lies are lies no matter what the intention, and they are still wrong. My biggest reasoning, however, is the stress the experiment caused on those participants. They had no idea they that there was not any harm coming to the person they were shocking. "Many of the participants were visibly stressed. Signs of tension included trembling, sweating, stuttering, laughing nervously, biting lips and digging fingernails into palms of hands. Three participants had uncontrollable seizures, and many pleaded to be allowed to stop the experiment." (McLeod, S.A., 2007. www.simplypsychology.org/miligram.html) Miligram claimed that afterwards the majority were glad they had participated in the experiment, but there was still too much stress on them. If one of them had unknowingly had heart issues they could have had a stroke or heart attack from the strain. This is why I believe his study was unethical.

Answer 1

Yes the study was unethical. Not because of all the other factors mentioned like deception or the lack of ability to withdraw from the expereiment. He had logical and valid explanations as to why he did the same. Any psychological experiment has to have some element of illusion to it in order to ensure that the results are the same and therefore it was important for him to make sure that was kept away from the participants. Also he did not allow for withdrawal as the experiment was about obedience. How can you study obediencewhen that was the first thing taken off.

The stress of the patients were bad and could have been very serious if anything bad had happened to any of them. Therefore this is the only grounds on the study to be unethical as it was his responsibilty to ensure the emotional, psychological and physical safety of his participants as his priority which he failed to do. He could have had a few tests done to ensure that his participants were fit to be a part of this kind of experiment.