If someone asked you to kill someone, would you do it?
You're going to be going to spit out this stupid question, and you're going to say with a lot of certainty, "No, how is that possible?".”
But everyone, don't rush to deny it.
Then I'll change the question: "If an expert who is very authoritative in the field of psychology asks you to cooperate with him and have a reasonable experimental purpose, but it is necessary to harm the student, will you do it?"”
Don't be in a hurry to answer, I'll share a classic experiment in psychology first, and then you can think about this question carefully.
This is a highly controversial experiment in psychology.
The experiment began a year (1963) after the Nazi Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death.
Adolf Eichmann was confronted with accusations at trial, insisting that he was innocent and arguing that "everything was done by order".
This "slightly ridiculous defense of innocence" led to a bold conjecture by Milgram, a social psychologist of Jewish descent: Is it possible that Eichmann and the millions of other Nazi followers who participated in the Jewish Massacre simply obeyed the orders of their superiors?Can we call them the big ** of **?
In June 1963, Milgram and his research team ran a newspaper advertisement recruiting psychology subjects. However, the purpose of the experiment was concealed, and they were told that "this is an experiment to study the effectiveness of corporal punishment on learning behavior".
In the experiment, Milgram told the participants that you would be a teacher with the "students" in the room opposite who needed to be tested. What they need to do is teach students certain vocabulary and take exams.
If the student fails to answer correctly, the teacher will give the student an electric shock, and each time the answer is incorrect, the number of volts of the shock will also increase, and the maximum voltage can reach a lethal 450 volts.
It should be explained that all the participants were teachers, and across the room were the researchers' assistants and pre-recorded screams that grew worse with the higher the voltage.
The results of the experiment were unexpected.
Among the 40 participants, 26 punished the students with 450V voltage continuously under the "pressure" of the main test authority, the proportion was as high as 65%. Many people have doubted the rationality and legitimacy of experiments when the voltage number is high, but very few have been able to disobey the authoritative order to stop the shock.
The results of this experiment have led to a lot of food for thought:How effective is the order of an authoritative person, and can it really make people violate their conscience?When faced with an order from an authority that goes against the conscience, how much power can human nature exert to refuse?
Let's go back to the question at the beginning of the story:
If a very authoritative expert in the field of psychology asked you to cooperate with him and have a reasonable experimental purpose, but it was necessary to harm the student, would you do it?”
Yes, you will. ”
The importance of the Milgram experiment lies in revealing the obedience and conformity behavior of individuals in specific social situations, as well as the influence of authority on individual behavior.
The results of the experiment showed thatMost subjects are willing to violate their own conscience and moral standards and inflict harmful actions such as electric shocks on others when authorized by an authority.
This conclusion has attracted wide attention from the academic community and the public, and is considered to be one of the important contributions in the field of social psychology and behavioral ethics. Its basic principles can be applied to many situations in everyday life.
Our "trust" and "obedience" to authority are actually everywhere.
Obedience refers to "the behavior or attitude that the subject produces in a specific social situation in order to seek reward or avoid punishment in order to seek reward or avoid punishment."
It is usually an act that is forced to conform to the requirements of others or norms under the pressure of social requirements, group norms, or the will of others.
Recall that in life, do we often obey?
We often have situations at work where we need to obey instructions from superiors, and sometimes these instructions may be unreasonable or even illegal, but we may feel that we have no choice because we are to obey the orders of our superiors.
Xiaoxue, who has been plagued by the "obedience effect", has been particularly tired recently, and the pressure from work and life has overwhelmed her.
The leader wants her to obey, her parents want her to be obedient, and even colleagues sometimes come to get involved.
Xiaoxue's education since she was a child was to teach her to be a "good child", and her parents have always wanted to make her life clear, from what she eats and where to play today, to which university she should choose and where she should work. Even Xiaoxue has her own ideas, even if these requirements are not reasonable in Xiaoxue's eyes. She was educated and expected to be a "puppet" who would always listen to her parents.
When she grew up, she came out to work, and Xiaoxue is also a "good girl". She was asked to do what was supposed to be done by three people in two days in one night, and she called it "an exercise in your abilities."
In the face of questioning, a direct sentence"Am I a leader or are you a leader?”
Xiaoxue was no longer willing to resist, she obeyed this authoritative order, and completed the work in the specified time by relying on coffee to survive, thinking that she would be praised by the leader, but the next day the leader said:"It's not the effect I wanted, redo!”
This is similar to the fact that participants in the Milgram experiment are instructed by authority rather than acting on their own judgment and morality.
In the work environment, if the superior puts too much pressure on the subordinate and overemphasizes his authority, it may lead to the subordinate being irresponsible and blindly obedient.
In Game of Thrones, Jaime Lannister, the guardian of King's Landing, says when he is asked to carry out immoral orders: "If I've broken my oath, why don't I keep breaking it?"”
Thus, the "Milgram Experiment" reminds us:Confront authority, challenge authority, think rationally and critically, refuse to play for the tiger, and be brave enough to say "no" to bad behavior.
In fact, following the orders of authority figures always brings us real, practical benefits.
Because they are in a vantage point, they have access to more information and more rights, so it is generally impossible to do what they want.
And because we are so convinced of this, it's easy to fall into the trap that sometimes there is no truth in what an authority says, but we don't hesitate to do what they say.
Doctors have professional knowledge and skills in diagnosing and ** diseases, so patients tend to have complete trust in the doctor's advice and guidance.
A large number of "doctors and experts" in white coats on the Internet said: "You need to drink at least eight glasses of water a day to meet the body's water needs." But how is the "cup" measured?Is it eight glasses of water for everyone?He said: "Health medicine is very necessary for health preservation. ”
But health care products are also medicines, and eating too much will also lead to a burden on the liver, and health should rely on a healthy life and rest.
Stay sober, think independently and make personal judgments, and avoid being swayed by herd or unreasonable authoritative dictations. This is a very meaningful lesson from the Milgram experiment.
As in Breaking Bad, the protagonist Walter White tells the fable to his students:
A bat told a bat: "We need to find a new place to live, it's too crowded." ”
Another bat replied, "We're already used to the environment, so why risk going to an unknown place?"”
To a certain extent, this expresses the dilemmas and choices faced by human beings when faced with moral and ethical issues.
In life, we are more faced with the choice of whether to obey orders from leaders, experts, authorities, etc. The ability to think independently is the first step towards freedom.
Jack Ma once said: "Independent thinking is the ability to find, think and solve problems independently." "Developing the ability to think independently is a long-term process that requires constant practice and reflection.
It requires us to learn to observe and reflect on ourselves, to consciously observe our own ways of thinking and behavior, and to understand ourselves. Reflect on your decisions and actions, find your blind spots and improve your way of thinking.
Persist in thinking and analyzing. Independent thinking takes time and energy, and it is necessary to think and analyze problems persistently, not to accept the opinions and opinions of others easily, but to think and evaluate independently. At the same time, we should also respect and appreciate the views and ideas of others, and constantly expand our knowledge and horizons.
"Independent thinking is the key to avoiding groupthinking and herd mentality, and to maintain independent judgment. "Rejecting unreasonable obedience and maintaining independent thinking is the peak that we need to climb with all our lives.