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Comment by chubbard | Hacker News Reader

Is it really all that strange to find out that we aren't that different from how we were in 1960 with respect to authority? Back then we thought of authority as a government and the nation state, but today it's you and me, our entertainment, tvs, xboxes, corporations, and facebook that exert more control over us. In this case who is the authority? The game show host or the crowd? Is this the power of the perception that "everyone's doing" it has authoritative control over us?

Scary stuff still. Does anyone want to volunteer for the new TV show "Alcatraz" where we recreate Stanford prison experiment?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

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I'm sure there has been some inoculation in people who are informed of these horrific possibilities, which presumably is the goal of the documentary. I'm not sure if they'll remember next time they're pressured, but it should help.

But human nature certainly hasn't changed, and won't. Social pressure is still stronger than nearly everyone's convictions.

I see the expressed horror as mostly remorse over how the security and validation they felt (that allowed them to be so cruel) was a sham, and that now they're really seen as monstrous. They have a pretty good excuse; it's likely that most people would have embarrassed themselves as fully.

Again I don't think this is about authority as much as it's about alignment with the perceived norm. People in positions of authority usually claim that they're merely upholding normal, necessary or desirable values, and others try to align themselves with that - often even without any explicit coercion, and especially if the authority is perceived to be of a higher social status.

One of the key things from milgrim's experiment was the notion of giving up responsibility, the "teachers"in the experiment were absolved of all responsibility by the experimenters (authority). I would expect the same dynamic in crowds. Some people seem to feel that they cannot be held responsible for their behavior when they are in a crowd -- and to a large extent they are right. Before modern technology it'd be hard to keep track of who did what and when.

Note: It's hard to take "studies" like this seriously, if you've ever read milgrim's book it's amazing the length they went to try and verify their results; whereas nowadays studies seem to be a lot less rigorous.

Although I havn't seen the show, I doubt that it could be considered a scientific experiment. At best it highlights the Milgram result to a modern audience who may not be aware of it. Experiments like Milgram's would be unlikely to get past any ethics committee these days, due to the potential psychological trauma caused to participants.

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