This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "Influence" by Robert B. Cialdini. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading.
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Have you ever done anything out of obedience to authority or a sense of duty? Did it ever make you uncomfortable? Would you question the instructions of someone in a position of authority? The Milgram Shock Experiment shows how far you might go.
The Milgram Shock Experiment is a study that demonstrated how willing people are to give deference to authority. Their obedience to authority allowed them to inflict pain on others even when they felt uncomfortable.
See how a sense of duty played out in the Milgram Shock Experiment.
What Is the Authority Principle?
The Authority Principle states that people are hard-wired to comply with requests that come from an acknowledged and accepted source of authority. Thus, we are strongly inclined to be deferential to people who we consider to be in a position of power or expertise. Examples would include teachers, members of the armed forces, police officers, doctors, and judges, to name just a few.
Of course, there are good and legitimate reasons why we’re strongly conditioned to obey authority. Leadership, hierarchy, and authority are obviously necessary ingredients in any functioning society. Unfortunately, authority can also be abused and exploited.
The Milgram Experiment: A “Shocking” Deference to Authority
Just how deep does our obedience to authority run? What can normal human beings be compelled to do at the behest of an authority figure? The results of the (in)famous experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram at Yale in 1961 demonstrated just how far authority can be used—and abused.
The test subjects were told that they were participating in an experiment to measure the effects of punishment on learning and memory. One set of participants (the Learners) was tasked with memorizing lists of words. The other set of participants (the Teachers) had to measure the Learners’ progress and administer electric shocks to the Learners whenever the latter made a mistake. The lab-coated researcher was always present to ensure that both the Teacher and the Learner carried out their assigned responsibilities.
Inflicting Pain
The Learners, however, weren’t really test subjects, but were instead hired actors. And there was no real electric shock being delivered. But the Teachers didn’t know this: they believed they were delivering real shocks to real people.
The Milgram Shock Experiment was really measuring obedience to authority with people’s willingness to inflict pain on others if it was part of their “job.” At first, the Teachers were told they were administering mild shocks to the Learners, akin perhaps to the static electricity you might feel when you open a doorknob after walking on a carpet.
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Here's what you'll find in our full Influence summary :
- How professional manipulators use your psychology against you
- The six key biases you need to be aware of
- How learning your own biases will help you beat the con men around you
