The Psychology Book (77 page)

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 245

See also:
Leon Festinger 166–67 ■ Solomon Asch 224–27 ■ Melvin

Lerner 242–43 ■ Stanley Milgram 246–53 ■ Philip Zimbardo 254–55

is therefore important that,

before diagnosing people as

psychotic, social psychologists

make every effort to understand

the situations people have been

facing and the pressures that

Some situational variables can

were operating on them when the

move a great proportion of us

abnormal behavior took place.

‘normal’ adults to behave in

very unappetizing ways.

Cognitive dissonance

Elliot Aronson

To illustrate his point, Aronson cites

Elliot Aronson

an incident that took place at Kent

State University, Ohio, in 1970 in

Elliot Aronson grew up in

Massachusetts, during the

which members of the Ohio National

Great Depression. He won a

Guard shot and killed four unarmed

scholarship to attend Brandeis

students, wounding nine others.

University, where he earned

Some of these students had been

his bachelor’s degree, before

protesting against the American

false, did not reflect the beliefs of

completing a master’s degree

invasion of Cambodia, but others

psychotic minds, but rather the

at Wesleyan University and a

were simply crossing the campus.

attempt of pressured and conflicted

PhD at Stanford University.

The reason for the shootings

minds to find relief.

He has been a professor at

remains ambiguous, but the fact

The conflict felt by these people

several universities, including

that it was tragically unnecessary

is known as “cognitive dissonance,”

Harvard and Stanford.

is clear. However, in the aftermath,

an unpleasant feeling experienced

Throughout his career,

one Ohio schoolteacher (as well as

when two or more of one’s beliefs are

Aronson has tried to use

National Guard members) asserted

inconsistent. In order to reduce this

his research findings to

that the students had deserved to

dissonance, people change their

improve the human condition

die, and rumors spread quickly that

attitudes, beliefs, and actions, even

and reduce prejudice. In

recognition of his work, he

the slain girls were either pregnant,

if this involves justifying or denying

was given the William James

had syphilis, or were filthy. Aronson

cruelty against others. This, Aronson

Award and the Gordon Allport

argues that these rumors, though

claims, is what happened after the

Prize, and was included in the

Kent massacre. The townspeople

list of the 100 most influential

wanted to believe in their National

psychologists of the 20th

Guards’ goodness, and this meant

century, published by the

believing their victims deserved to

Review of General Psychology
.

die. The idea that the slain had

He is the only person to have

been wanton and dirty comforted

won all three awards offered

the people, relieving the emotional

by the American Psychological

conflict of believing that innocent

Association: for writing,

students were needlessly killed.

teaching, and research.

Aronson claims that anyone

could behave this way under similar

Key works

circumstances. By understanding

1972
The Social Animal

the reasons why people justify or

The Kent State University

1978
The Jigsaw Classroom

deny the use of cruelty, we may be

shootings
, in which four students

2007
Mistakes Were Made

better placed to mediate or prevent

were shot dead by the National Guard,

(but not by me)

caused the emotionally conflicted

it in wider social contexts, such as

townspeople to denigrate the victims.

war or social prejudice. ■

PEOPLE

DO WHAT THEY ARE

TO

STANLEYL

MI D

LGRA TO

M (1933–19 D

84)

O

248 STANLEY MILGRAM

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

S
ocial psychologist Stanley merely because he was ordered

Milgram dramatically

to do so? His study went on to

changed our understanding

demonstrate important aspects of

of human obedience when he

the relationship between authority

Conformism

published
Behavioral Study of

and obedience, and it remains one

BEFORE

Obedience
in 1963. This paper

of the most controversial experiments

contained results of an experiment

in the history of psychology.

1939–45
During World War II,

that seemed to suggest that the

approximately six million Jews

majority of people are capable of

The power of the group

are systematically killed on the

causing extreme harm to others

Milgram believed that it was the

orders of Nazi Germany.

when told to do so by a figure of

situation of World War II and the

1950
Solomon Asch

authority. It also caused people

compulsion to obey—rather than

demonstrates the power

to question the ethical limits of

the dispositions of the Germans—

of social pressure to make

psychological experimentation.

that had enabled Nazi cruelty. He

people conform in his

Milgram became particularly

maintained that the behavior was

line-task experiments.

interested in studying obedience

a direct result of the situation, and

during the trial of German Nazi

any of us might have behaved

1961
Nazi war criminal Adolf

war criminal Adolf Eichmann. The

identically in that very same

Eichmann is tried, and claims

prevailing view was that there was

context. In the late 1950s, Milgram

he was just “following orders.”

something inherently different

had worked extensively with

AFTER

about the 20th-century Germans;

Solomon Asch on his conformity

in the 1950s, psychologists such as

studies and had witnessed people

1971
Philip Zimbardo conducts

Theodor Adorno had suggested

agreeing with the decisions of a

his prison experiment, which

that the Germans had certain

group, even when they knew

demonstrates that in certain

personality characteristics that

these decisions to be wrong. The

situations, otherwise good

made them specifically susceptible

experiments showed that people

people can perform evil deeds.

to committing the atrocities of the

are prepared to do or say things

1989
American psychologists

Holocaust. Eichmann, however,

that conflict with their own sense

Herbert Kelman and V.L.

claimed he had just been “following

of reality. Would they also allow

Hamilton state that members

orders,” so Milgram set out to

their moral judgments to be

of a group obey authority when

investigate if this could be true—

affected by the authority of a

they accept its legitimacy.

would an ordinary person lay aside

group or even a single figure?

what he knew to be right or wrong

The Milgram experiment

Milgram set out to test whether

normally kind, likeable people could

be made to act against their own

Humans are
socialized

moral values in a setting where

People do what

to be obedient
from

some kind of authority held sway.

they are told to do.

an early age.

He devised an investigation of how

obedient a selection of “ordinary”

men would be when they were told

by an authority figure to administer

electric shocks to another person.

The experiment took place in a

laboratory at Yale University in 1961,

We feel
compelled to

…even when this

where Milgram was a professor of

comply
with the commands

conflicts
with our

psychology. The participants were

of authority figures…

own
moral values
.

recruited through a newspaper

advertisement, and a total of 40 men

were selected from a wide range of

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 249

See also:
Solomon Asch 224–27 ■ Serge Moscovici 238–39 ■ Philip Zimbardo 254–55 ■ Walter Mischel 326–27

labels that indicated the intensity

of different ranges of shock levels,

from “slight shock” at one end, to

“extreme intensity shock,” “danger:

severe shock,” and finally, one

marked simply “XXX,” at the other.

The most famous

The role of the experimenter

and controversial of all

or “scientist” was played by a

obedience experiments.

biology teacher who introduced

Richard Gross

himself to the participants as

Jack Williams. In order to give the

impression of authority, he was