In: Psychology
Earlier in the semester, we discussed an experiment by Stanley Milgram in which participants, assigned the role "teacher," shocked a "learner," sometimes to the point of potential injury (or worse). This week, we discussed Cognitive Dissonance, the Justification of Effort, and the Justification of Cruelty.
How might these concepts help you understand the results of Milgram’s experiments? (If you are struggling, I would suggest focusing on the theory of the Justification of Cruelty, but, if you have other ideas, that’s absolutely fine! Think outside the box!)
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort occured if a person simultaneously holds two or more contradictory ideas,beliefs.It refers to the situation where attitudes,beliefs and behaviours are very contradictory.
Justification of effort is a person's tendency to attribute a value to an outcome.Here they have to put effort for achieving.
Justification of cruelty is a psychological need to convince ourselves that we are genuine and reasonable people. Sometimes situations encourage us to do cruel activities.
According to the experiment, The subject was instructed to teach word-pairs to the learner. When the learner made a mistake, the subject was instructed to punish the learner by giving him a shock, 15 volts higher for each mistake.But in the result there was obedience to the authority.65 % never stopped giving shocks. None stopped when the learner said he had heart-trouble.Thus here the theory of justification of cruelty is justified.