Cogprints
Login | Create Account

The Social Engineering Solution to the Murder in the Milgram Experiment

Tarnow, Dr. Eugen (2005) The Social Engineering Solution to the Murder in the Milgram Experiment. [Preprint]

[img]HTML
109Kb

Abstract

Society's power to make us obey allows for peaceful existence, economic prosperity and efficiency but it also amplifies faulty decisions to become catastrophic. In 1963 Stanley Milgram showed that the vast majority of humans exhibit excessively obedient behavior in presence of an authority and can easily be made to encourage or tolerate real torture and murder. In this advocacy paper, the overdue issue of how to limit excessive obedience is addressed. Eliminating the Milgram Prediction Error – i.e. the discrepancy between what we think we will do and what we actually do in situations of authority is stressed. Barriers and dynamics in our society that keep us from breaking and even enforce our habit to obey excessively are discussed. For example, society does not know what the strong situations are and therefore cannot put up a defense against them; the law does not punish excessively obedient behavior and the teaching of ethics is hampered by illusions of its efficiency. A sketch of a solution to the problem of excessive obedience is made involving experiential training, mappings of authority fields, rules and strong situations, and policy changes.

Item Type:Preprint
Keywords:obedience, milgram, conformity
Subjects:Psychology > Social Psychology
ID Code:4894
Deposited By:Tarnow, Dr. Eugen
Deposited On:30 May 2006
Last Modified:19 Dec 2009 19:22

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

Hannah Arendt (1970), “Eichman in Jerusalem, a report on the banality of evil”, The Viking Press.

Axelrod, R. (1984). The Evolution of Cooperation, Basic Books.

Axelrod, R. (1985). "Modeling the Evolution of Norms," speech delivered at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, 8/29-9/1, 1985.

Davison, Allan J.; Higgins, Nancy C. (1993). "Observer Bias in Perceptions of Responsibility." American Psychologist, v48, 584.

Eastwood, S., Derish, P., Leash, E., Ordway, S. (1996) Ethical issues in Biomedical Research: Perceptions and Practices of Postdoctoral Research Fellows Responding to a Survey, Science and Engineering Ethics 2: 89-114.

Hilliard, R.L. (1997). “Surviving the Americans”, New York: Seven Stories Press.

Hobbes, T. (1960). Leviathan. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

Hofling, C.K.; Brotzman, E.; Dalrymple, S.; Graves, N., and Pierce, C. (1966). "An Experimental Study of Nurse-physician Relations," The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 143, pp. 171-180.

Isenman, M.K. (1990). "Reviewing Crimes of Obedience. By Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton." The Michigan Law Review 88, 1474.

Janis, I.L. (1972). Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-policy Decisions and Fiascoes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Kelman, H.C., and Hamilton, V.L. (1989). Crimes of Obedience. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Le Bon, Gustave. (1982). The crowd - a study of the popular mind. Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing Company.

Madison, James in Rossiter, Clinton. (1961). The Federalist Papers. Penguin Group, New York.

Mantell, D.M. (1971). "The Potential for Violence in Germany." Journal of Social Issues 27, pp. 101-12.

MARTIN, J.; LOBB, B.; CHAPMAN, G.; SPILLANE, R. (1976). "Obedience under conditions demanding self-immolation." Human Relations, p. 345-356.

McKellar, Peter. (1951) "Responsibility" for the Nazi policy of extermination. Journal of Social Psychology, v34:153-163.

Meeus, W.H., and Raaijmakers, Q.A. (1986). "Administrative Obedience: Carrying Out Orders to Use Psychological-administrative Violence." European Journal of Social Psychology 16: 311-324.

Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper and Row.

Miller. A.G. (1986). The Obedience Experiments. New York, Praeger.

National Transportation Safety Board (1994a). Controlled collision with terrain: Northwest Airlink Flight 5719, Hibbing, Minnesota, December 1, 1993. Washington, DC.

Sherif, M. (1961). Conformity-Deviation, Norms, and Group Relations. In Conformity and Deviation, ed. by I.A. Berg and B.M. Bass. Harper and Row.

Tarnow, E (1996). “Like Water and Vapor--Conformity and Independence in the Large Group” Behavioral Science v41, 136-151

Tarnow, E (2000a). "Toward the Zero Accident Goal: Assisting the First Officer Monitor and Challenge Captain Errors", Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education and Research, v 10, no 1.

Tarnow, Dr. Eugen (2000b) A Quantitative Model of the Amplification of Power through order and the Concept of Group Defense.

Thoreau, Henry David. (1980) "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience", in Walden and "Civil Disobedience," Penguin Group, New York.

Ziemke, Earl F. (1975). Army Historical Series: The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany. Center of Military History, U.S. Army, Washington D.C.

Zimbardo, P.G. (1974). On "Obedience to Authority". American Psychologist 29:566-567.

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.