The Milgram Experiment

The Milgram Experiment

Summary

This movie was based on the true story of Dr Stanley Milgram, a psychologist who did a research on the Holocaust and found out that the obedience factors were the main reason why people were able to perform a cruel act. The movie depicts Dr Milgram journey in conducting his famous and controversial experiment. The experiment is done in the lab where a participant, an authority figure and a confederate are involved while Dr Milgram observes the situation through a two way mirror without the participant’s awareness. Through the experiment, it was found that most people follow the authority to perform electric shock to the confederate even when they know that the electric shock can be detrimental to the people who receives it. Dr Milgram conducted this study in several different places as well as variety of scripts and the proximity between the participant and the confederate yet the result still yield the same conclusion. Even when the experiment finished, it is still being the talk of the town due to the unexpected result concluded by him. Besides, Dr Milgram is being called to the ethics board meeting to clarify the ethics behind his experiment as it involves the deception.  His experiment has unveil the inconvenient truth about human behaviour and the consequences.

The Lesson

Throughout this movie, I realized that it is hard for society to accept any facts that are not compatible with our beliefs. For example, the experiment showed that people are willing to do cruel act simply because an authority figure asked for it. Hence it may explain why the army are willing to be a part of holocaust: conformity and obedience to instruction. Many people disagree with the conclusion because they expect that human will comply with their own value instead of following other people instruction that goes against their value. So, they are quit resistance to believe the result of this study. Besides, a researcher must also stay true to themselves despite of getting pressure form the society. If the researcher is confident with his conclusion he should stand to his point. One main point is that, the researcher should not manipulate their conclusion so that the experiment will be accepted by the society instead they should be authentic and present only fact even though the truth may be bitter.

Experiment

I am interested in looking at the topic of leadership in Malaysia. Do we have a racial bias when electing a leader?Malaysia has gain peace and harmony among diverse community and races, however we could not deny that there are still tension that happens among the races due to the feeling of entitlement of being a member of certain culture and races. The experiment can be conducted by having the participants from 3 major races in Malaysia. Three participants will be gathered in a room with three confederates from each races. They will be given a situation of being deserted in a dessert with other participant. A situation has called for an emergency meeting where they need to elect a leader to manage their group. At the mean time all participants are allowed to pitch for the position. The three confederates are given the same script so that they can give an impression of a leader. Later, all the participants will elect their leader by voting.