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increasingly severe electric shocks. Others disobeyed the researcher at different stages
up to the point where the researcher discontinued the experiment. This evidence refutes
the absolute position that either a person is or is not in a situation of bad faith which
Sartre’s philosophical argument logically led to. Instead, what emerges is a spectrum of
bad faith. At one end are those who obeyed instruction to deliver harmful electric
shocks right up to the discontinuation of the experiment by the researcher. At the other
are the subjects who asserted their values and disobeyed the experimenter as soon as
they realised the electric shocks were potentially harmful. The remaining subjects
disobeyed at different points along the continuum.
Figure 8. Levels of bad faith.
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For example, Milgram describes the experiment conducted with a man who disobeys
the researcher early on in the experiment (p. 64–66). The man questions whether the
ethics of the experiment had been considered. He does not accept the authority of the
researcher and declines to follow his instruction, exercising his choice and asserting his
evaluation of the need to discontinue the experiment. At the other end of the spectrum,
the actions of a man who continues to administer shocks until the researcher
discontinues the experiment are described (p. 66–67). In the follow-up interview, the
man explains his behaviour by saying that he was merely “following orders… I was
told to go on. And I did not get a cue to stop.” This man had followed the
objectification process through to the agentic state. He rescinded all responsibility for
delivering the electric shocks and surrendered his subjective self to the authority of the
researcher.
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