Do Milgrams Obedience Experiments Help Explain the Nature of the Holocaust?

[Keny]

ISSUE 10. Do Milgrams Obedience Experiments Help Explain the Nature of the Holocaust?

YES: JOHN P. SABINI AND MAURY SILVER, FROM SURVIVORS, VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS: ESSAYS ON THE NAZI HOLOCAUST (NOVEMBER 1999)

NO: FLORENCE R. MIALE AND MICHAEL SELZER, FROM THE NUREMBERG MIND (QUADRANGLE/NEW YORK TIMES BOOK COMPANY, 1975)

Social psychologists John P. Sabini and Maury Silver believe that the Obedience Experiments captured the most important psychological aspects of the Holocaust, by demonstrating that normal people can be made to harm others with alarming ease. Psychotherapist Florence R. Miale and political scientist Michael Selzer believe that Milgrams results are not as convincing as is often believed. They contend that the findings of these controversial experiments can be explained by individual differences in participants willingness to inflict pain on others.