Page Content (OCR)
humanity. 7: This experiment, in which the observer was really the one being observed, was repeated many times, so that statistics could be established to know how many people would go as far as killing other people in the name of scientific progress. It was also conducted in many countries, so that the results could be compared and analyzed. Contrary to the expectations of the scientists who had put together this experiment, and the psychologists whom they had consulted, it was not just a minority of people who were unbalanced enough to go as far as pushing the 450 volt lever. In the US, 60 per cent of the people obeyed the scientist, who told them not to listen to the cries of those whom they were electrocuting, and continued to administer shocks, even when those being shocked could no longer say anything, which itself counted as an incorrect answer; and this three times in a row, after which a new electrocutor was selected. This experiment was also conducted in many European countries, where over 70 per cent of the people went as far as the maximum voltage. The record high was reached in Germany where 85 per cent of the people would have been responsible for homicide by electrocution... The conclusion of Professor Stanley Milgram of the Department of Psychology at Yale University is as follows: When the individuals are placed in a position of hierarchical control, the mechanisms which ordinarily assure the regulation of the individual's actions cease functioning, and his actions become controlled by the people occupying the senior position... The disappearance of the sense of responsibility is the greatest consequence of submission to authority... Most of the subjects place their behavior in a large context of undertakings, useful to society: the research of scientific truth. A laboratory of psychology could clearly claim to this legitimacy, and so inspire confidence in those who were invited to work. 317 AN ATHEIST RELIGION - DERESPONSIBILISATION would help science to progress immensely, and therefore all of