Conflicting moral impulses

We can experience deeply conflicting moral impulses.

A prominent 1961 experiment by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram (rather alarmingly) measured how far individuals would go to obedience to figures of authority if asked to hurt others, and the strong internal conflict between personal morals and the obligation to follow figures of authority.

Milgram wanted to experiment to provide insight into how, during the Holocaust, Nazi war criminals could have perpetuated unspeakable acts. To do so, he tested a pair of people, one deemed the “instructor” and the other deemed the “learner.” The teacher was told to deliver electrical shocks to the learner (who was supposed to be seated in another room but wasn’t shocked) whenever they had wrong questions. Milgram then played tapes that made it sound like the learner was in distress, and if the subject “teacher” expressed a desire to leave, he was prodded by the experimenter to proceed. 

65% of participants received an intense, final 450-volt shock (labeled “XXX”) during the first test, although many were noticeably nervous and unhappy about doing so.

While the research has traditionally been seen as a sign of blind obedience to authority, it has recently been revisited by Scientific American, suggesting that the findings are more suggestive of deep moral disagreement.

Shock tests show not blind obedience, but contradictory behavioral impulses that exist deep inside.” Recently, some critics criticized Milgram’s methods, and one analyst noted that Yale experiment reports indicated that 60 percent of participants reportedly disobeyed orders to deliver the highest-dose shock.