Hello, and welcome to Spotlight. I'm Marina Santee.

 

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　　And I'm Ruby Jones. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

 

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　　A man and a woman sit in a small office. The man is wearing a white coat. He looks like a medical man - a scientist maybe. The woman clearly believes that he is. But in fact, he is not a medical man at all. He is an actor. He is part of an experiment testing people's attitude to authority. And the whole experiment is being filmed as part of a television programme.

 

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　　The false ‘scientist' tells the woman that she is about to do some important research. She is helping him to find out more about how human memory works. The ‘scientist' tells the woman to read out a list of words. She must speak them into a microphone in front of her. A man in the next room will hear her voice. The man must remember the list of words. She will ask him a question about them. And he must give the right answer. If he gives the wrong answer, the woman must press a switch. The scientist tells her that the switch will send electric shocks to the man in the next room. The ‘scientist' shows the woman the room where the man sits. And he gives her an electric shock so she can feel it herself. It does not hurt her. So the woman is happy to start the experiment. She goes into the other room and closes the door. She asks the first question through the microphone. She hears the man's voice through speakers. His answer is wrong. The woman presses the switch.

 

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　　An electric shock runs through the man's body. But it is weak and does not cause pain. The woman continues with her questions. The man gives more wrong answers. The electric shocks become more intense - and more painful. The woman hears the man screaming with pain! She says to the "scientist" that she wants to stop. However, he tells her that the experiment requires her to continue! She does not want to obey - but she does. The man gives another wrong answer. So the woman presses the switch once more. More screams - and then silence. What has happened to the man, she wonders. Has she killed him?

 

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　　Clearly, she has not killed him. It was all part of the experiment. The screams and cries she heard were a recording. The electric shocks never reached the man's body. The real experiment was testing the woman! It was designed to see how far the woman would go to obey a person in authority - the ‘scientist' - even if it meant harming another human being!

 

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　　This experiment was part of a television programme called "How Violent Are You?" It was the idea of a man called Michael Portillo. Michael used to be a member of the British government. Now, he writes for radio, television and newspapers. Michael considers himself to be a man of peace. But he saw many conflicts around the world. And he began to think about the nature of violence. He decided to make a television programme about it. This is the subject of an earlier Spotlight programme called "How Violent are You?"

 

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　　Michael particularly wanted to know why a person would choose to kill another. To help answer this, Michael secretly watched the experiment with the woman and the electric shocks. The experiment came from the work of an expert in human behaviour - Stanley Milgram. He developed the "Milgram Experiments" in 1961. Milgram wanted to examine people's attitude to authority. How willing are they to obey orders without questioning them? World events of the time caused Milgram to think deeply about this. A German man was on trial in Jerusalem for war crimes. He was Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann served as a Nazi officer during the Second World War. He was one of men closest to Adolf Hitler. And he organised the death of millions of Jews. At the trial, Eichmann defended himself. He said that he had only obeyed orders. These words struck Milgram. And so he organised a series of experiments to see if there was any truth in them. Later he wrote:

 

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　　"I set up a simple experiment... I tested how much pain a normal citizen would cause another person simply because a scientist ordered him to. Pure authority competed against people's belief that hurting other people was wrong. But even when the people heard the screams of their victims, authority was usually the winner. The main thing I found was that adults are willing to go to any lengths to obey a person in authority."

 

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　　Twelve people took part in the Milgram experiment on Michael's TV programme. And nine of them chose to continue obeying the ‘scientist' - even when they heard screams of pain. Michael was amazed at this. But it confirmed what Milgram wrote years before:

 

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　　"Normal people, simply doing their jobs... can become involved in a terrible process that destroys others. This is true even when they understand the effects of their work. It is true when what they are asked to do goes against their moral system. Very few people have the resources to resist authority."

 

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　　It seemed that people could persuade themselves that violence was acceptable in some situations. Stanley Milgram also wrote:

 

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　　"Many people have an extremely strong natural urge to obey authority. This urge can be stronger than social training, sympathy, and moral behaviour."

 

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　　But what about people being responsible for their own actions? Milgram believed his experiments showed that:

 

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　　"The main point of obeying is that a person then thinks of himself as the instrument for doing another person's wishes. In that case, he is no longer responsible for his actions... But the moral system does not disappear. It just concentrates on a completely different thing. The person who obeys feels shame or he feels proud. This depends on how well he has performed the acts he was asked to do by authority."

 

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　　At the end of his television programme, Michael Portillo discussed what he had observed. He now believed that every human being has the power inside them to perform violent acts - even him! But the important thing was to control this power - and to learn to live in peace with other people.

 

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　　The writer and producer of today's programme was Ruby Jones. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted and voiced by Spotlight. You can hear this, and other, Spotlight programmes on our website: http://www.radio.english.net.  This programme is called "The Milgram Experiment". You can tell us your opinions about humans and violence on our website. Or, e-mail us at radio @ english . net.