The participants usually began with what they thought were 15-volt shocks, and worked upward in 15-volt increments, as the experimenter instructed. At 75 volts, the “learner” in the next room began grunting in apparent pain.So where would you have stopped pulling the trigger?
At 150 volts he cried out: “Stop, let me out! I don’t want to do this anymore.”
At that point about a third of the participants refused to continue, found Dominic Packer, author of the new paper. “The previous expressions of pain were insufficient,” Dr. Packer said. But at 150 volts, he continued, those who disobeyed decided that the learner’s right to stop trumped the experimenter’s right to continue.
Before the end of the experiments, at 450 volts, an additional 10 to 15 percent had dropped out.
Jerry M. Burger, the author, interviewed the participants afterward and found that those who stopped generally believed themselves to be responsible for the shocks, whereas those who kept going tended to hold the experimenter accountable.Sometimes, I guess... we just don't wanna look in that mirror.
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