>70% will obey even when they shouldn't | The Milgram Experiment: A Casual Essay

In the 1960s, Dr. Stanley Milgram conducted a study, known collectively as The Milgram Experiment, which looked into the ordinary person’s obedience to authority. Milgram’s study examined the extent to which regular Joe-Schmoes like you and I would follow the orders of authority figures—even if it meant hurting others.

One of Milgram's most famous experiments involved participants giving increasingly stronger electric shocks (when the authority figure said so) to someone they didn’t know when that person answered questions incorrectly. ​

What the participants didn't know, though, was that the electric shocks were completely fake, and the person they were shocking was acting. Pretending. (Like how my 18-month-old fake cries and throws herself on the ground when I don’t pick her up as soon as she demands it.)

What Dr. Milgram found was fascinating (and disconcerting): More than 70% of the participants administered what they thought might be fatal shocks to an innocent stranger when prompted… even when the “victim” begged them to stop. 

This traumatizing yet groundbreaking study demonstrated the ordinary person’s tendency to obey commands issued by an authority figure, even if it goes against their morals, and more generally, the tendency for behavior to be influenced more by situational pressure than by idiosyncratic traits of the participants.

Now what about us? What about you?

This applies to every area of our lives: our jobs, our religion, our family even. If you can’t stand up for what you believe in, then you’re potentially part of the problem. You’re at a high risk of submitting to the Bad Guy™️. 

Everyone wants to be the hero. Everyone thinks they’d be the one to stand up when no one else would. But Milgram’s experiment alone suggests otherwise.

Standing up for what’s right when you’re the only one taking a stand is hard. It takes work to be that courageous. It’s uncomfortable. You will be hated by some people. But you’ll also be loved by some, by those on your side, by the people who love the TRUTH.

This is one of the reasons I write dystopian fantasy books. Through the narrative, I’m able to showcase truths in a harsh world that’s actively trying to bury it, trying to beat it down, trying to twist it into a lie. 

Dystopian literature can teach us so much, can empower us, if we let it. If we’re paying close enough attention, we can learn how to say no when we’re told to go against our morals. 
​
Decide today:
Are you willing to pay the price to stand up for truth?
Or will you deliver the next shock to your fellow human?