Obedience to authority: arendt, milgram, and zimbardo lawrence m. hinman, ph.d. professor of philosophy university of san diego larry at ethicsmatters dot net december 18, 2014 12/18/2014 (c) lawrence m. hinman 1 overview part one.. The concept of the experiment was first discussed in 1963 in the behavioral study of obedience in the journal of abnormal and social psychology by yale university psychologist stanley milgram and later in his 1974 publication obedience to authority: an experimental view. the purpose of this experiment is to test the power of human nature to resist the authority of an authority who gives an order against their conscience.. Zimbardo proposed that two processes can explain the prisoner's 'final submission.' deindividuation may explain the behavior of the participants; especially the guards. this is a state when you become so immersed in the norms of the group that you lose your sense of identity and personal responsibility..
Zimbardo’s mock prison shows that the prisoners had periods of obedience and disobedience. the prisoners tried to be obedient out of fear of retaliation by the guards. even if the prisoners were obedient, the guards would assault them verbally and physically and order them to do degrading work, such as cleaning the toilets with their bare hands.. Zimbardo’s deindividuation study used disguises to dehumanize the subjects being shocked by the participants in his study. the participants were told that this study was supposedly being done to test the effect that stress has on creativity. the subjects pretended to be doing something creative while the participants gave them ever increasing levels of electrical shocks.. Obedience to parents and teachers is part of nearly everyone’s socialization. however, obedience has its dark side. most tragic are the cases in which people obey a leader who is evil, unreasonable, or sadly mistaken. this type of obedience is called destructive obedience. zimbardo (1973) psychology lecturer at stanford university usa.
