Like Stanley Milgram, I Cross The Line (But It's For Science!)


I did an activity with my students today designed to replicate Stanley Milgram's infamous obedience experiment, and I found that students enjoy torturing a friend more than they do an acquaintance-- the worst punishment inflicted (I replaced Milgram's shocks with calisthenics) was twenty squat thrusts for one wrong answer . . . on a quiz the "teacher" knew was impossible-- I wish I could get away with this kind of positive punishment as an incentive . . . I'd have the smartest, fittest students in the school.
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3 comments:

  1. WhitneyApril 9, 2008 at 1:57 PM

    Milgram's punishments were faked by actors; did you have people pretending to do squat thrusts?

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  2. DaveApril 9, 2008 at 2:34 PM

    they were real squat thrusts, but they were "in" on the experiment, and were instructed to either try to get out of the punishments, or to see how far the "teacher" would go-- so some kids had fun pushing their teacher to the limit . . .

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  3. AnonymousApril 10, 2008 at 8:54 AM

    I NEED to know how you did this!!!

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