Psychologists have replicated Milgram’s experiment to understand why some participants refuse to comply with the host’s cruel demands.
We tend to trust authority figures – even when they demand something dubious and cruel. This was proved half a century ago by the experiment of the American psychologist Stanley Milgram. Most of its participants were ready, at the request of the presenter, to “punish” another participant with electric shocks for mistakes, even when he was in pain (actors were in the role of “victims”). But some still refused to continue the cruel test. Why?
To understand this, psychologists repeated Milgram’s experiment. This time all participants filled out a detailed questionnaire, wrote about themselves, their views and habits. It turned out that those who in life were inclined to conflict with other people* refused to continue the experiment more often than others. “Rebels question any generally accepted order, because the attitude to fight with others in childhood helped them achieve what they wanted,” comments psychologist Elena Stankovskaya. “They rebel out of habit, but their behavior has a positive meaning: it proves that in any situation there is an opportunity to act independently.”
* Journal of Personality, online publication June 24, 2014.