Title: The Milgram Experiment
Text Type: Article
Author: Saul McLeod
The Milgram Experiment by Saul McLeod, is an informative article about Stanley Milgram's study on human obedience. To help Milgram's research, he conducted an experiment where he would found out how long people would follow a figure of authority and their instructions, even if it meant hurting hurting another person.
This article gave me a strong insight of how other people feel about a subject which matters to them. The text states that "Milgram was interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person" and that basically explains his reasoning for going ahead with the experiment. Reading about this specific event, made me realise that people are actually willing to go ahead a do what they want just because they are curious enough to do so. It can sometimes be seen as a good thing, however, I feel that this can also be proven as dangerous for some sort of ideas which pop into the heads of people.
Along the lines of danger, and how the ideas which some people may have with their great curiosity, there is a real reason for why Milgram wanted to go under way with conducting this research. This can be seen in part of the aim of the article, where it stated that "He wanted to know how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing atrocities, for example, Germans in WWII". This allows us to see a deeper part of Milgram's thinking and how he wanted to know about something, which should've been taken care of much earlier. Hitler was a very powerful man, but his rise was mainly successful due to his persuasive speaking skills. Just be speaking with great force behind his words, people followed, and people were forced into following him.
Iris
ReplyDeleteA very nice summary. This is a fascinating aspect of human behaviour. There have been numerous experiments in which people have been put in charge of others, and then act in ways that as individuals they would never accept. What else might you read about this?
Nga mihi
I like how you went into specific detail about why Milgram conducted his experiment.I can relate to you on the fact that I was also really surprised people were actually willing to go through with hurting another person.I would find it interesting to hear your personal opinion on the experiment.I think your reading log would benefit a lot by adding some more quotes directly from the article.
ReplyDeleteKa rawe Iris. Your opinion is unique - one I haven't encountered before - and I appreciate that. Your second paragraph nails on the head what I am looking for in a reading log. You interweave your opinions with thoughtful explanations of those opinions, and detailed and specific evidence from the text.
ReplyDeleteYour ideas about Hilter in the last paragraph are interesting, but the writing feels incomplete. Perhaps you could include a few more sentences linking this back to your ideas on the text.
Keep up the good work. Thanks Iris :)