Unpacking Ideas
Unpacking Ideas
Zach Stehura
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17. Stanley Milgram on Obedience to Authority
1 hour 33 minutes Posted Jun 6, 2022 at 3:00 pm.
Introduction
Historical context of the Milgram Experiment
Asch’s Conformity Experiment
Milgram’s Existential Questions for the Experiment
Milgram’s Personal Motivation for the Experiments
Summary of the Experiment
Milgram’s Hypothesis for the Experiment
Results of the Experiment
the Disconnect between our predictions and reality
The Attribution Error
The Agentic State/Loss of Moral Responsibility
The Horrific Consequences of the Division of Labor in Society
Doing What We’re Told as a Way of Preserving Cognitive Energy
Victim Blaming
Dehumanization feedback loop
Variations of the Experiment
Proximity of Experimenter to Subject
Proximity of Subject to Victim
Power in Numbers in Dissent
Not Seeing Disobedience as an Option
Counteranthropromorphism
More Variations
Motivations for Dissent
The Sequential Nature of Action
The Unknown of Dissent
The Moment of Bravery to Say No
Obeying out of a sense of Politeness
Feeling Bad After Doing the Right Thing
Profiles of Subjects
Obedience to God as an Antidote to Obedience to Corruption
Feeling Bad vs. Doing Good
The Effects of the Experiment on the Subjects
The Ethics of the Experiment
Lessons Learned for the Experiment
Variations we would have liked to see
Wrapping Up/Outro
0:00
1:33:36
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Show notes
In this episode we unpack American Social Psychologist Stanley Milgram's 1974 book "Obedience to Authority."
This book explores...
-Why we lose our sense of moral responsibility when taking orders
-Why we are so bad at predicting our capacity to be obedient
-Why the desire to be polite can lead us to do evil
Links to Reading and Other Books/Movies Mentioned
Obedience to Authority by Stanley Milgram
CRT: An Introduction by Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic
Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian (short story)
Experimenter (movie about Stanley Milgram)
A Hidden Life by Terrence Malick (film)
**note** reading is not required to enjoy the episode!
Host: Zach Stehura    UnpackingIdeas.com
Guest: Claire Bevan [email protected]
Theme Music: Polyenso   listen here
Timestamps
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