Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

That was a real problem because as the psychologist they have to be able to say at what time the subjects
had enough. That the experiment did not have to go any farther than it already had even if the
experimenter did not get the results that he/she wanted. Zimbardo observed that out of the 50 outsiders
who had witnessed the experiment, only one had objected to what he was doing, saying that it was
immoral (Zimbardo, 1999-2009).
The humiliation that these students went through, Zimbardo says ―was so that we would be better
equipped to behave morally in future real-life situations‖ (Zimbardo, 1999-2009). Even though we would
be better equipped to handle a situation like this, it was not right to do this to the students. The experiment
was harmful and degrading to the subjects and should not have been performed, it was morally wrong
even if was for the ―greater good‖. What does the ―greater good‖ even mean for who is it good the
experimenters or the subject? It is supposed to benefit the world just like learning from our mistakes yet
we still keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Zimbardo should have stopped the
experiment the minute he saw how it was affecting the subjects.
Psychologist Stanley Milgram was well known for his experiment at Yale University on
obedience. This experiment consisted of three people: the subject, the confederate and the scientist. The
subject and the confederate were both placed in an area to wait for the scientist. When the scientist came
out, he had the two men draw slips of paper both saying ―teacher‖. The drawing was rigged so that the
confederate would say that he was the learner. The scientist then took the two men to a room that had the
shock wires. The scientist strapped the learner in and then gave the teacher a sample of the shock. Right
before the scientist and the teacher left to go to the other room, the confederate stopped them, saying that
he was recently to the doctors and the doctor had diagnosed him with heart problems. He then quickly
reassured them that after consulting with his doctor he had been deemed physically fit to participate in the
experiment. The scientist and the teacher then left the room. In the next room the scientist told the teacher
what to do (Experiment-Resources.com2008).
The teacher had to verbally give the learner a list of paired words. After the list was read the
teacher had to go back through and say the first word of each pair and then give four possible answers.
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