Free Thought Project – by Justin Gardner
For the state to make war, it must convince the populace that killing other people is just and necessary. Many different rationalizations have cropped up over the millennia – from controlling resources to exterminating races to “fighting terrorism” – but murdering strangers requires a particular obedience to authority.
Fifty years ago, psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted the Milgram experiment, which measured the willingness of study participants to hurt others, even when it conflicts with their personal conscience, in the interest of obeying authority. The results, published in 1963, showed that a very high percentage of participants were willing to follow orders and cause serious injury to others. Continue reading “Horrifying New Study Shows People Willing to Hurt Complete Strangers Just to Obey Authority”