Post #5: Social Experiments & Theories

The experiment I read was Stanley Milgram's shock experiment. The experiment involved 3 individuals and only one was a volunteer, the other two were actors pretending to be volunteers. The actors were the "leader" and "learner", the volunteer was the the "teacher"; the teachers job was to teach the learner words then test the learner. The teacher could not see the learner, they could only hear them and every time the teacher would test the learner and the learner got the answer wrong, the teacher would administer an electrical shock. Each shock administered the voltage increased by 15 and the maximum was 450 volts.
Around 60 percent of volunteers reached the maximum 450 volt shock although at some point all participants paused and questioned the experiment. This can be related to The Book Of Negroes, in the experiment the teacher could not see the learner therefore the learner is dehumanized similarly in The Book Of Negroes the black slaves are dehumanized by taking their freedom away. This experiment shows that if other people say it is ok to do a unethical thing then the people will proceed to do it. We can see an example of this in The Book Of Negroes with Mr. Lindo, even though he thinks slavery is unethical he still participates in the slave trade because all the white people are doing it. This experiment shows how dehumanization and authority effect a persons ethics, and I believe it is important for people to understand what they are capable when these two factors are in play. In the experiment 84 percent of former participants surveyed later said they were "glad" or "very glad" to have participated and it taught them a good lesson.