In Poland, social psychologists did the same like what Stanley Milgram experiment did in the 1960s. Milgram's electric-shock studies proved that cruelty of people can be measured through it. It has also proved that obedience of people to authority is strong.
It was the social psychologists from SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Poland that did the modern version of the Stanley Milgram experiment. They have found out that people are still as obedient and as cruel like almost 50 years ago, SPSP reported. The objective of the study was to measure the obedience of people in Poland. "It should be emphasized that tests in the Milgram paradigm have never been conducted in Central Europe. The unique history of the countries in the region made the issue of obedience towards authority seem exceptionally interesting to us," the authors of the study stated.
Stanley Milgram experiment has proved his infamous saying that ordinary people will be obedient to authorities and whatever the authority will tell them to do, even if it is very cruel, they will follow. However, there are many scientists who are saying that this thought is wrong. There are many other psychologists and sociologists who challenge the Stanley Milgram experiment. One TV show has patterned an episode with Milgram's experiment. In 2007, ABC collaborated with Santa Clara University psychologist Jerry Burger and they replicated Milgram's experiment for an episode of the TV show "Basic Instincts" titled "The Science of Evil," pegged to Abu Ghraib said The Atlantic.
It has the same obedience result just like in Stanley Milgram experiment. However, Matthew Hollander, a sociology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin derived a different conclusion. He thought that Milgram's descriptions of his subjects are too shallow. People cannot be grouped as obedient or disobedient. Moreover, other professors are saying that Stanley Milgram is more of a situationist who believed in situationism.
He believed that people's behavior can be affected by what's happening around them, said Arthur Miller, a professor emeritus of psychology at Miami University and co-editor of the "Journal of Social Issues". The Stanley Milgram experiment did not prove that the subjects are psychopaths or they're hostile, it has proved that people will react that way because of the situation that was given to them.
The subjects in Stanley Milgram experiment are not aggressive or deranged, they're just people, like everybody else, Miller added. If people are put in some situation, they can be really bad; they tend to be racist or sexist. Many studies have proven this fact. The unsavory side of most people are very well documented.
