Stanley Milgram Essay

Stanley Milgram was a social psychologist, studying various aspects of society. Milgram focused on many important social issues, one of them was obedience. Perhaps his most famous experiment, Milgram tested the extent of authoritative power and how obediences can influence a person’s action . To test his theory on obedience, Milgram had asked a subject, known as the teacher, to shock a “learner” if they fail to remember a set of phrases. The shock was increased every time the learner made an error. Milgram wanted to see how far the teacher would push forward with the experiment. The results of the experiment were chilling. Milgram learned that people are willing to listen to an authority figure’s demand, even if the demands are horrendous.

Atrocities committed today are often the result of mob mentality. We see numerous events of racial discrimination in the U.S. police force, often resulting in unjustified violence against the African American communities. These racial violence echoes the message that Milgram had warn us about. A clear example of this is the Rodney King beating in 1991. In this incident police officers pursued Rodney King in a high speed chase. After the police officers arrested Rodney King, 4 members of the police unit proceed to beat King for 5 minutes, who is unarmed and cuffed at the time. Meanwhile the other police officers watched as the beating continued. The beating resulted in Rodney King receiving a brain damage, a fractured skull, and various broken bones. This unlawful punishment of Rodney King is a testament to Milgram’s statements. The officers who watch the beating did not attempt to stop it, knowing that it was unjustified. Rather than come to sense with morality, the police officers submitted to the situation. The police officers on standby, didn’t want to receive any sort of rejection if they had spoken out against the beating. This incident shows a combination of mob mentality and weak morals can erupt into senseless violence. It is not surprising to see this event occurring, Milgrim has warned us in the