Blindly follow the leader, again, and its shocking

William Atkins
Sunday, 21 December 2008 20:28

Science - Biology

The results of the Burger study will be reported in the January 2009 issue of American Psychologist, a journal of the American Psychological Association (“Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey Today?” American Psychologist, Vol. 64, No. 1).

A look-back at the Milgram experiment, by Arthur G. Miller, is also found in the January 2009 issue of American Psychologist (“Reflections on 'Replicating Milgram”. American Psychologist, Vol. 64, No. 1.).

The paper “Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey Today?”, by Dr. Burger, is found now on the Santa Clara University website.

Although there are differences between the Milgram study of the 1960s and 1970s and the Burger study of the 2000s, both studies show that humans are willing to inflict pain onto others if prodded by an authority figure, a leader, or someone in power.

For all of the people out there in the world that are willing to fight to correct a wrong, there are also many people that seemingly will blindly obey any commands (such as evil and dangerous commands) of someone in power.

We still see that today in the twenty-first century, as we did in the twentieth century.

No doubt our descendents will see the same in the twenty-second century, unless we all begin to think for ourselves and question authority if it seems to be wrong--ethically and morally.