"Continue, The Experiment Depends On It!" (Part 1)

Stanley Milgram was an American social psychologist known for his controversial experiments on obedience conducted in the 1960s during his professorship at Yale.

He involved people in a strange, yet eye-opening experiment on the psychology of obedience and authority.

What Was The Experiment About?

•    He asked people to control and monitor an electrical switch which could deliver shock of 15V, 30V, 60V until the deadly limit of  450V, to a person sitting on the other side of glass pane.
• In reality, there was no electric connection of the wires.
• The person to whom the shock was supposedly being delivered was a hired professional, acting as if he was experiencing shocks.
• The people in charge of the shocks did NOT know about the fact that there was no actual shock and the patient was merely an actor.

The Results:

• Were, no less than horrific.
• Despite the people who were in control of the electrical monitor switch, could see the person twisting and writhing in pain, and they themselves wanted to stop, but the chief scientist would tell them: “Continue, the experiment depends on it.”
• The majority of the people (65%)  continued administering the shock even till its lethal dosage of maximum volts, out of obedience towards the authority of the chief scientist.

Milgram later shared: He concluded people obey either out of fear or out of a desire to appear cooperative--even when acting against their own better judgment and desires.

These are the horrific results of a predisposition, which has kept human beings away from clear thinking, called “the authority bias”.

The authority bias in a commercial airline cockpit can result into life-death situations. The chief pilot or the captain used to be the only authority, the Almighty within the cockpit and the junior officer dared not disagree out of fear or respect, even if they had different yet better observations. This resulted in compromise in air traffic safety.

The airlines are now actively training their pilots to engage in effective cockpit communication, reflecting timely different opinions, minimizing air accidents and increasing air safety.

The authority bias has led businessmen and CEOs take wrong decisions, because their immediate members of the team, are unable to correct them or lack the moral courage to share their true, honest opinions, fearing they might lose their jobs or the favorite positions earned in the eyes of the CEO.

All command houses, centers of authority, and registries of power desire recognition. That is why we see, a particular set of apparel used by different authoritarians: kings clad in jeweled robes and crowns, doctors and scientists in spotless white gowns, military generals always in heavily decorated ceremonials, investment bankers in ultra-expensive suiting, judges in black gowns.

In the world of social media, authority is commanded by verified blue tags, 1 million follower gold tags, a 100 million viewed video or shared badge.

Yet, there is one inherent wrong with the authority bias. It is always external and serving to the needs of the center of the authority, paying no respect to whom it is being implied upon.

Ask one great question, whenever facing an authority signaling person or an organization: is the command in the best interest of me and my people?

Choose your way to challenge or ignore them accordingly.

See things clearly, with clarity.

Blessings

Hassan Bukhari (pen name)

Syed Hassan Abbas

Chief Editor

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