The Effort of an Early Social Science Experimenter in Obtaining His Result
In this movie, we could see Milgram's effort in proving his findings. As a social science student, I have many acquaintances that are conducting their own study for undergraduate dissertation. However, based on my observation, student nowadays are more relaxed in conducting researches when compared to Stanley Milgram. Students are also afraid to do what they want to do and merely adhering to the rigid rules and guidelines set by the faculty.
What is the reason behind modern student being more relax in terms of conducting study?
1. There is a saying in Chinese: 前人种树，后人乘凉 (qian ren zhong shu, hou ren cheng liang), which means ancestors make the effort and descendants enjoys outcome. Many conclusions have been made by previous studies, therefore some students might think that their effort will not contribute to the field of study. Also, living in the enjoyment from the outcome of ancestors' hard work, some modern students might not see the need to come out with new findings.
2. The experiment guidelines are different as compared to how it was used to be. There are various ethical guidelines that students are oblige to adhere to when it comes to running experiment. Without the tension of needing to run a research that might cause discrepancy, students are in their safe zone when they are conducting their study. This indirectly will result in student being more relaxed as it is noted that there will not be many ethical criticism.
The Appearance of Elephant in the Background
There is no explicit explanation in the movie regarding the elephant that appears at the back of Milgram when he is talking to the audience while walking in the corridor. The appearance of the elephant might be a metaphor of Milgram's worldview. The appearance of elephant in an indoor corridor is rather unrealistic, therefore the meaning that director wants to portray might be that Milgram is starting to be unrealistic in his procedures in running his study. It is also mentioned in New York Times movie review by Dargis (2015) that the appearance of the elephant in the background seems to be raising a question: Did his experiments finally turn Milgram into a kind of accomplice? Through this, it makes the audience wonder whether is Milgram still doing research based on reality or is he living in his own perception/fantasy of human behavior.
In addition to the movie, if time, money and ethics in not an issue, I would come out with a psychology experiment which study the effect of forceful blaming on rebelling behavior. This study will require an experimenter to vigorously put a false blame on the participants. The blame could be accusing the participants for stealing. Participants will be asked to react naturally as how they would react in a real life situation. This aim of this experiment is to study how likely will a person defend himself in the case of false forceful blaming. This is because in Asian context, the Asian values promote one to be polite by not talking back to others, especially to elderly and/or to authority. However, this is often the reason for a falsely accused person to admit mistakes that he/she did not make. I believe this study would result in an interesting finding in understanding the impact of certain Asian values.
References:
Dargis, M. (2015). Review: In "Experimenter", are they following orders or instincts? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/movies/review-in-experimenter-are-they-following-orders-or-instincts.html?_r=0
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