Stanley Milgram Experiment & Obedience Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts, results, and ethical considerations of Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments.

Stanley Milgram

A famous social psychologist born in $1933$ who investigated how individuals interact with authority figures and conducted a notorious study on obedience.

Holocaust

The historical event in Europe during the $1930\text{s}$ and $1940\text{s}$ that motivated Milgram to study why normally good people perform horrible actions.

Memory

The subject Milgram advertised his study was investigating to mislead participants about the true nature of his obedience research.

Confederate

A member of a research team who acts like a participant to deceive the actual study subject.

Teacher

The role assigned to the actual participant in Milgram's study, who was instructed to administer shocks to another person.

Heart condition

The health issue casually mentioned by the confederate at the start of the study to increase the psychological pressure on the participant.

Person in a lab coat

The authority figure who appeared to be in charge and instructed participants that they had to continue the experiment even if they hesitated.

60\text{-}65 \times 10^0 \text{%}

The approximate percentage of participants across different locations and conditions who were willing to administer the largest possible shock on the machine.

Proximity

The specific factor Milgram found that changed the percentage of participants willing to deliver shocks based on how close the confederate was to the participant.

Stanford Prison Experiment

A notorious psychological study where students were assigned roles as prisoners and guards, which was based on Milgram's findings on authority and social roles.

Inflicted insight

A phenomenon where an individual is forced to realize something uncomfortable about themselves, such as the capacity to harm other human beings.