In the famous 1961 "Milgram Experiment", test subjects were told by an authority figure to torture a fellow test subject. Two thirds of those told to do so, did so even after the other person pleaded them to stop.
"Primetime" and SCU recreated the "Milgram Experiment", using women as the test subjects. Would the gentler gender be more sympathetic ?
The Science of Evil - and video of experiment
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2765416&page=1
If you were told to torture someone by your boss, employer, superior, or by your government, would you ?
2007-01-03 14:32:50 · 6 answers · asked by Joe_Pardy 5 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
almost everyone answers "no" -- many experimenters have replicated the milgram study (with variations, of course, to follow ethical guidelines) and the majority of participants don't believe they would follow through with the authority figure's instructions; studies have also recruited people with clean records so that they know they're not getting a sample full of sociopaths, which would obviously skew the results -- so no, one doesn't have to be an inherently "evil" person to do evil things
2007-01-03 14:38:14 · answer #1 · answered by jdphd 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If I were told to torture some one I would refuse! Did you not read that 1/3 of the people refused the " authority " of the authority figure. 1/3 is quite a bit more than statistically significant. Yet, no one even mentions that significant proportion of people, let alone explain them!
2007-01-03 14:46:46 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Look at your question now look at your anwsers everyone says no, but no one can truly no unless they were in that position. My problem with this is that people are saying, "anyone with a heart wouldn't be able to torture someone," or even worse, "if someone did that to me I would be out the door fast nobody can control me." Evil is an enigma, evil doesn't really exist it is merely a category. If you say that guy murdered someone people say he is evil, If you say that guy murdered someone because he attacked him, people say that's to bad. Anyone who reads this watch the video that the question links, who are we to call those 2/3 people evil, when we may do the same thing.
2007-01-03 15:39:42 · answer #3 · answered by apuaa11 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Not at all. Just like the facts of sexual predators hurting, killing and raping kids, some parents, who are outstanding citizen's, never even had a traffic ticket, will kill, torture and do horrible things to there children's attacker,I don't think this is an act of an evil person.
2007-01-03 14:39:52 · answer #4 · answered by My Lord . 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Evil is has evil does.. anyone with a heart and conscience would not want or even think of torturing anyone. If my boss or superior told me to torture anyone, I would be out that door so fast... no one can tell you want to do.. not even Satan can get you to do things if you do not want to.. I would never torture anyone, and no one could force me to..
2007-01-03 14:39:20 · answer #5 · answered by Mari-Mari 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i guess good people sometimes do evil things under pressure or certain circumstances. Sometimes commiting these acts makes you evil...it just depends
2007-01-03 14:45:06 · answer #6 · answered by bluecolouredflames 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋