""In this experiment the learner-victim was actually given shocks. A nonhuman subject--a cute, fluffy puppy--was substituted for the human learner-victim of Milgram's paradigm. In addition, shocks were amperage-limited and capable of creating responses such as running, howling, and yelping, without, however, doing the subject any serious harm ... The first of the three actual voltage levels produced foot flexion and occasional barks, the second level produced running and vocalization, and the final level resulted in continuous barking and howling."

I want to say it was done by Sheridan and King. I can't recall last names.

Do you know anything about it?

Thanks!

While the rate has dropped in the U.S. in recent years, a lot of that has to do with latino immigrants. Infant circumcision rates among whites is still very high.

The baby is screaming in pain and parents tell themselves: it's a baby it won't remember. The baby is losing 20,000 nerve endings in the foreskin (there are 4000 in the head of the penis and 8000 in the clitoral glans of women) and parents tell themselves: it's a useless piece of skin. The lifetime probability of breast cancer is 1 in 8 yet the breasts of infant girls are not removed and parents tell themselves: circumcision reduces the rate of penile cancer (which is 1 in 600).

The VAST majority of people are lemmings, until we face that fact about our species and actively seek to overcome that part of our nature, we will not grow ethically or morally.

Its converse, the state of agency, is what humans revert to when presented the wishes of a person with authority. In this state, we are far more susceptible to orders. This is the "follow orders or it's your head on a pike" state. This instinctive state derives from the constant message in all orders.

For example, we recieve multiple commands with the order that many hear: "Show some respect to your grandmother." From that simple order we recieve many strong psychological commandments. The one taken at face value: "Obey your grandmother." The one taken from the fact that you will: "Obey me." And the one taken from every single command that you don't reject: "Obey those with power over you."

With these signals constantly deluging you from everything from the scoldings of your mother, to the ads you see on TV (BUY STUFF), obedience is constantly and subconciously being reinforced because each signal you accept reestablished the authority.

In this study, we see it proven. Whenever we're ordered: "Don't hurt people", we again are presented with "Don't hurt people.", "Obey me." and "Obey Authority."

Also note that when the experiment was over, people weren't like children being pulled away from a game, they were shaken and visibly relieved.

John has perhaps missed the point of the experiment ... which was to show that to obey authority and instructions is perhaps just human nature, ie that we ARE just like those people were.

And nobody comments how much more so this applies within a military structure, where questioning orders is out of the realm of possible responses (trained into each soldier at every stage of his career) and orders come down from a structure of command .....

^ Sheridan, C.L. and King, K.G. (1972) Obedience to authority with an authentic victim, Proceedings of the 80th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association 7: 165-6.