Obedience to Authority

Summary
The first experiment discussed is the classic experiment of what people do under authority. They were told to administer a specific level of shock and ramp it up as they get questions wrong. The many levels of how this experiment was done are described starting with inquiring for participants. Also, it described who the "victims" would be and how all the players come together to create the experiment. Then results were tallied and showed to have a clear trend showing where most people would not continue the experiment. Another factor in the experiment that was used was how the person delivering the "shock" saw the victim. This got progressively closer and had an affect on the out come. Next the book then focused on specific experiments of shock treatment. Then in future experiments new variations were created to make the victim vocalize that they have actual heart conditions at certain levels of voltage and also comparing the gender role of the victim and shocker. Also discussed were the specifics of when confrontation of authority occurred. Lastly a role switch experiment was done to see what happens when the subject is a different role in the experiment (ex. giving orders). Next up in the round of testing was to add in the element of having a group aspect to the variables. This is to see whether these people would still choose to go with the authority aspect even with peers by them. Then the next chapter pondered on the idea of why authority and obedience correlate so well. What makes the person who disagrees with what is happening go along with the instructions. The disobedience aspect of the equation is even more interesting because people simply don't just disobey because of the fact that shocking a victim is morally wrong because when the space between the subject and the victim is changed so does the obedience factor. Strain will definitely be a factor in this equation. Also proposed was maybe aggression as a key cause for all the outcomes. The last chapter was reserved for stating possible problems with the study such as whether the test subjects were truly thinking they were administering a shock, whether they were actual volunteers or whether the recruitment gave them any bias.


Discussion
This book allowed for a much better understanding on this seemingly well known study. It was interesting to see in the huge description of the experiment what all went into making this experiment work and all the different variables. This is obviously similar to the Opening Skinner's Box book but only focusing on one particular experiment. Also, I find it very similar to the coming of age in samoa because it presents findings in a similar fashion.