RVN: The Shock of Authority โ€“ How Ordinary People Do Extreme Things ๐ŸŒ€

Short recap of the series so far

In Day 2 we saw with the Dartmouth Scar Experiment how people experience discrimination that isnโ€™t there at all โ€” simply because they expect to be carrying a โ€œscarโ€. ๐Ÿชž

Today we continue with an experiment that shows how powerfully authority can influence our behaviour.


Milgram Obedience Experiment (1961)

Participants thought they were taking part in a learning study.
They were told to give electric shocks to a โ€œlearnerโ€ (actually an actor) every time he made a mistake.
The shocks increased from 15 volts all the way up to 450 volts โ€” a potentially lethal level.

Whenever the learner screamed in pain or begged them to stop, the participant hesitated.
Then the man in the white coat would calmly say:
โ€œPlease continue. The experiment requires that you continue.โ€

Result:
65% of the participants went all the way to the maximum 450 volts โ€” despite the screaming, the begging, and the eventual silence.

They were not sadists.
They were ordinary people: postmen, teachers, salesmen.

Narratief:
โ€œThat was back then. We would never do that.โ€

Realiteit:
This experiment has been repeated many times with similar results.
Ordinary people obey authority to extreme levels, even when it goes against their own moral compass.

Milgram concluded:
โ€œOrdinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process.โ€

How is this used today?

The OIM-lesson:

Real freedom does not begin with blindly obeying authority.
It begins with the courage to ask:
โ€œIs this truly right, or am I only obeying because someone in a white coat told me to?โ€

The lesson of Milgram is not that people are evil.
The lesson is that normal, decent people under the pressure of authority are capable of terrible things.

What do you think?
How far would you go if an authority figure told you to?
And how do you recognize the moment when you must stop obeying? โš–๏ธ

Read for yourself. Check for yourself. Dare to say no.

#RVN #MilgramExperiment #Authority #Obedience #Manipulation #OpenInternetManifest

https://openinternetmanifest.org

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