- I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects' ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.
Everyone has head of this experiment, but I found Milgram's article in Harper's captivating. The word "Germany" invariably appears when this topic comes up. It appears only once in the article: But Fred Prozi was more compliant.The subject, Gretchen Brandt, is an attractive thirty-one year old medical technician who works at the Yale Medical School. She had emigrated from Germany five years before....
Experimenter: It is absolutely essential that we continue....
Brandt: I'd like you to ask him. We came here of our free will. If he wants to continue I'll go ahead. He told you he had a heart condition. I'm sorry. I don't want to be responsible for anything happening to him. I wouldn't like it for me either.
Experimenter: You have no other choice.
Brandt: I think we are here on our own free will. I don't want to be responsible if anything happens to him. Please understand that.
She refuses to go further and the experiment is terminated.
Experimenter: You'll have to go back to the beginning of that page and go through them again until be's learned them all correctly.
Prozi: Aw, no. I'm not going to kill that man. You mean I've got to keep going up with the scale? No sir. He's hollering in there. I'm not going to give him 450 volts.
Experimenter: The experiment requires that you go on.
Learner: Ohhh. I absolutely refuse to answer anymore. (Shouting urgently now.) Let me out of here! You can't hold me here! Get me out. Get-me-out-of-here!
Experimenter: Continue. The next word is "green," please.
Prozi: "Green -- Grass, hat, ink, apple." (Nothing happens. No answering buzz. Just gloomy silence.)