Obedience To Authority Research Paper

As previously stated, everyone has been pressured to conform at some point during their life. The majority of people naturally will conform to society and obey an authority figure. However, Miss Emily strays from being part of the majority and lives her life resisting conformity and denying authority. I have already discussed why someone might resist conformity and the possible consequences, now I will discuses why people obey authority figures and ultimately conform to society.
Stanley Milgram’s book, Obedience to Authority, is dedicated to testing the humans’ ability to obey authority despite of the consequences of their obedience. According to the English Oxford Dictionaries, “Obedience is compliance with an order, request, or law or submission

According to Milgram, “Conservative Philosophers argue . . . even when the act prescribed by authority is an evil one, it is better carry out the act than to wrench at the structure of authority” (Milgram, 2). On the contrary “humanists argue . . . that the moral judgment of the individual must override authority when the two are in conflict” (Milgram, 2). Milgram preformed an experiment that tested both the conservative and humanist views.
To set up the experiment Milgram began with two people; one “teacher” and one “learner”. The learner is placed in room, strapped to a chair, and an electrode is placed on their wrist. The leaner is told to memorize a list of word pairs and repeat them back to the teacher. Every time in the learner makes an error while repeating the word pairs they will receive an electric shock; increasing with each error. The main focus of the experiment is the teacher. The teacher watches the leaner while they are strapped to the chair and hooked up to the electrode. They are then taken to a separate room where they are

Only about one-third of the subjects who participated in Milgram’s experiment stood up to the experimenter/authority figure. As reported in Milgram’s book, one subject found it difficult to administer the shock every time. “His lips are drawn back, and he bares his teeth”, said Milgram (Milgram, 48). When the experimenter sees the subject struggling he tell him it is crucial to the experiment that he continues. The subject replies, “I understand that statement, but I don’t understand why the experiment is placed above this person’s life” (Milgram, 48). The experimenter told the subject the learner was not going to have permanent damage to his health. The subject was not fooled by the experimenter and said, “well that’s your opinion. If he doesn’t want to continue, I’m taking orders from him” (Milgram, 48). The experimenter responded to the subject’s comment by telling him he has no choice he must continue. However, the subject informed the experimenter that this is America and he can make decisions for himself. That portion of the experiment was then terminated. Although the majority of people would do as they are told and finish the experiment no matter the consequences, there are a few people who put the conscience above