Dr John Campbell
@campbellteaching·3.3M subscribers·3.1K videos
Destructive obedience
Posted
July 15, 2025
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181,462
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July 15, 2025
181,462
13,559
2,414
8.80%
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23:02Now PlayingStanley Milgram’s original publication
18 studies, 1961 to 1963
Wide range of participants, $4.50 (turn up fee, no conditions)
Yale University
Victim was a 47year old accountant.
Predicted compliance was 0 to 3% (1.2%)
Actual number was 65%
Later work
Six degrees of separation
Correlation between watching TV and anti-social behaviour
Learning from Milgram
Only bad people do bad things
No, ordinary people can do bad things in the wrong context
We rationalise and diffuse responsibility
It’s not my fault, it’s that guy who gave me the orders, anyway, I’m just a small cog in a big machine I can’t control.
Beware of gradual escalation
That small compromise can lead on to the next slightly bigger compromise. Do not give moral compromise a ‘foot in the door’.
(Milgram’s machine had 30 graduations of shock, started at a mere 15 volts).
Okay, you don’t want to do that, well just do this little bit…
Well, you did that little bit last week, what’s the problem now?
Make no mistake, conscience can be blunted.
People carried on despite personal distress
The procedure created extreme levels of nervous tension in some …
A degree of empathy was possible, but overridden by conformity, (all had been given a 45 Volt demo shock)
Pressure of a situation
Do not let the pressure of people or a situation override your moral stance. Use your rational intellect to avoid confusion generated by others.
Authority can be wrong
An establishment that was once good can go bad. The power of an institution or state can be weaponised against the individual.
No matter how apparently credible the source it can be wrong. Academics, doctors, researchers can all be wrong.
Some academics, doctors, researchers can be bought.
Obedience to authority can override personal morality.
Feel free to appeal to absolute authority.
Do to others as you would have them do to you (Luke 6, 31)
The four standard prods
How many times have you heard these?
Sometimes our orders are explicit, other times much more covert
That which sound credible is often not
Milgram’s subjects were given apparently authoritative information on the relationship between learning and punishment,
We should challenge apparent axioms
Well, someone has to do it … You are just passing on the dirty job to the next guy, where is your consideration?
What’s your field?
Military, justice system, education, corpriate, healthcare?
‘The point of rupture is the act of disobedience’.
Look around, talk around, you will find your ethical prospective is not a currently unacceptable minority or hateful position. Many of us ordinary people share your morality.
Classification of subjects
‘Defiant subjects’, refused after 12 shocks
‘Obedient subjects’, administered all shock levels commanded.
Milgram’s subjects received a dehoax
Don’t expect this in your life
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