Milgram has defined obedience as “the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purpose.” What do you think encourages obedience? Is it fear of punishment? A desire to please? A need to go along with the group? A belief in authority? As some students watched the film Obedience, some laughed. How do you account for that laughter? Is it because something was funny or was there another reason? Those who study human behavior say that laughter can be a way of relieving tension, showing embarrassment or expressing relief that someone else is “on the spot.” Which explanation is most appropriate in this case? How did the volunteers act as they administered the shocks? What did they say? What pressures were placed on them as the experiment continued? How did they decide whether to stop? Did you identify with any of the volunteers you observed in Obedience? Post your reflective comment by the end of the week.
18 comments:
I think fear of punishment and embarrassment encourages obedience. I believe some students laughed as "comic relief" or to relieve the seriousness/tension involved in this film, also out of shock. However I do think students thought some parts were a little humorous in terms of the yelling from the student being shocked. The volunteers reacted very nervous and afraid. They were also worried about the liability of the death or injury of the man being shocked, and once they knew they were not liable for this man, it was easier for them to exert pain on the student. Some stopped and stood by their belief of what they're doing is wrong. Others followed orders of the professional looking scientist in the lab coat.
I think the need to go along with a group is what encourages obedience. I think it is the pressure and authority placed on an individual that makes them do what they do. I agree with Annie that the laughing was to relieve some tension or shock from the film. The volunteers said they were afraid, but most of them kept going. I was surprised when once the one man was told he wasn't reliable for the other individual, he went as far as the experimenter pressured him to go. It made me mad that he said he had wanted to stop, but he never did.
I think it is a need to please and be praised that encourages obedience. Just like the behavior in young children can analyzed as good behavior resulting from praise and positive feedback and bad behavior resulting from lack of attention and praise. If you know you are going to be celebrated for completing a task, then you are more likely to complete it. As for the class laughter, I think it started because most of us were expecting more of a documentary and not a Hollywood movie with a dramatic cast. I must disagree with Annie and Corinne said about it being from comic relief, at least from my perspective, I thought parts of the movie were just corny and people laughed. Although I joined in on the laughter late because I was still thinking about the previous movie. I did not really identify with any of the volunteers shown, not with the one who after hearing the protests a little bit stopped, because ok'd the way he stopped, the way he laughed throughout and how be continued after hearing the a screaming. And especially not with the man who kept going and only stopped after he reached 450 volts.
I think if a person needs to accept responsibility for their actions, that would encourage obedience. I believe some laughed due to their nervousness and the tension of the situation. Volunteers acted differently when they administered the shock. Some laughed and some were disgusted by their actions. They didn't start to react until the person began yelling, though. They asked if the person would be okay and asked the experimenter whether or not they would accept responsibility. I agree with Corinne, in that the need to be part of the group encourages obedience.
I think that fear and embarrassment propelled this experiment and allowed it to function in the way that it did. The people administering the shocks obeyed the scientist out of fear of having to get shocked and also because they did not want to look weak and scared. Once the people administering the shock found out they were not liable for any harm, it seemed to be easier for them to press the buttons because they no longer had to worry about anything.
Obedience is almost entirely formed out of a fear of punishment. The primary reason for conformity is becuase people dont want to suffer the consequences that accompany not doing so. Although many people did not agree with the idea of inflicting physical pain intentionally on another human being, they continued to do so because they believed that they had no choice, and they themselves would be punished if they refused to continue administering shocks. The laughing that accompanied the the experiment on the part of the teacher was out of nervousness, and the laughter was a result of the teacher attempting to relieve the stress cuased by their disapproval of their own actions. In this case, the idea that laughter relieves tension is the most relevant, as the teachers began to laugh as a way of coping with their actions. The decsion to either continue or to stock administering shocks was based on whether they wanted to stop causing physical pain, or if they believed that they had to continue. The whole idea of the film was to demonstrate the complications that arise when a command from a person of higher authority clashes with the values that a individual has internalized through their devlopment and growth.
I think conformity influences obedience. I think part of it is the fear of punishment but part of it is the fear to go against the group regardless of what your gut tells you. I can't say i know a reason for the laughter. It may be because of the reaction of the person getting shocked. The volunteers seemed very reluctant to administer the shock after a centain voltage because of the fear they were harming the victim.
I think that this film goes to how people respect and obey power. If the person instructing the teacher was not so persistent or came off as weak he teacher would have picked up on it and not respected his orders. Also when the teacher had a much less of a problem when he was assured that the responsibility of the learned was not his, was surprising to me. The fact that he didn’t mind shocking the learner as much if he knew he wasn’t responsible is scaring to think about because what else could the teacher have done if it wasn’t his responsibility or problem if something happened.
I think this film goes to show how people obey power and do what they are told when they are told. I was very surprised to see what people were willing to do to other people and straners that they did not even know.
I believe fear in general encourages obedience. Every action has its consequencee. Most people want to be a follower rather than a leader.The laughter which was made while we watched the film was probably nervous laughter, similar to how the teacher did in the experiment. the pressures of thinking that the experimental teachers were actually hurting the learner had caught up to the teachers. the teacher in the experiment wanted to make sure that it was not their responsibility if the learner were to be hurt.
I believe that generally people are afraid to speak up and state how they're really feeling causes so many people to be obedient. Very few people want to stray away from the norm and express their true feelings about a situation. Instead, they continue to follow the crowd and do what everyone else is. In this film, one teacher was able to express his true feelings and stopped performing the experiment. However, others reluctantly finished the experiment due to the superiority and responsibility Dr. Milgram had in the experiment. I agree with Annie that the teachers laughs were because of being nervous and scared.
I believe that generally people are afraid to speak up and state how they're really feeling causes so many people to be obedient. Very few people want to stray away from the norm and express their true feelings about a situation. Instead, they continue to follow the crowd and do what everyone else is. In this film, one teacher was able to express his true feelings and stopped performing the experiment. However, others reluctantly finished the experiment due to the superiority and responsibility Dr. Milgram had in the experiment. I agree with Annie that the teachers laughs were because of being nervous and scared.
This experement was to see the majority of people who will follow orders no matter the conseqence of the order. It shows that everyone can be influenced by a radical order if they were taught to obey. Danger is easy to come by and hard to prevent.
I believe that a desire to be accepted by others is what causes people to obey. I think the laughter from the class was a sense of relief that somebody else was on the spot. It was difficult for the volunteers to make a decision whether or not to keep on shocking the person, because they hadn’t seen anybody else do the same thing, so they were hesitant to just stop the experiment right away.
I think obedience is a result of a "trust" in the authority. If one believes everything someone is telling them then why not do as they say? Also the fact that whatever happens the responsibilities aren't upon them, they are upon the higher authority.I agree with Annie when she said that students laughed as "comic relief." I believe most of it was nerves. I don't think the students knew how to react to people getting shocked and hearing that so they laughed. The volunteers were very jittery as they did the test. They emotionally didn't want to continue on with it but the pressure from the authority made them continue. They said that they were at a dangerous shock or that the man in there was complaining about his heart etc. The pressure to continue the experiment successfully was major. The "doctor" told them that for it to be successful they had to continue on? They did stop or want to stop at points where the man in the other room was screaming.
I believe that a desire to be accepted by others is what causes people to obey. I think the laughter from the class was a sense of relief that somebody else was on the spot. It was difficult for the volunteers to make a decision whether or not to keep on shocking the person, because they hadn’t seen anybody else do the same thing, so they were hesitant to just stop the experiment right away.
I was absent for the second half of this video, but I believe that a belief in authority and superiority causes this blind obedience. The teachers were laughing nervously not because there was anything funny going on. The only real pressure placed on them was the asks by Milgram to continue. Though I did not identify really with any of these volunteers, I believe that the audible screams would make me stop going.
I think that I might be too late with this blog to recieve credit but I'm not totally sure so I'm going to post anyways.
I agree with Sean that fear and embarrassment were two of the factors that contributed to the outcome of the experiment. I also think that a belief in authority drove many of the volunteers to do what they were told. In this case I believe most of the volunteers laughed both to relieve tension and to show emarrassment. Each of the volunteers reacted slightly differently. Some were obviously shaken while others seemed to be quite nonchalont until quite far into the experiment. Some of them asked the man in charge whether they should keep going and some even asked if they could stop but the man put a lot of pressure on them to continue because he said that if they didn't, they would ruin the experiment. Most of the volunteers decided to stop after they heard that the person they were shocking was in pain. While I've never been in a situation quite like that of the volunteers, I do know what it is like to back down on something you believe in because an authority figure tells you too. I have always been brought up to have my own ideas and beliefs but to also respect authority so it is sometimes hard to do both when you believe something different from the person in charge. In those cases I often find it difficult to stand up to authority, especially in school.
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