Human Nature Doesn't Change Much

Back in 1974 Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram did a controversial and scary study. He showed that most people would "just follow orders" by supposedly giving painful electric shocks to others simply because they were told to by an authority.

Now a psychologist at Santa Clara University has replicated the study and come up with similar results even having changed some of the more uncertain aspects of Milgram's study.

[The Santa Clara psychologist, Jerry] Burger found that 70 percent of the participants had to be stopped from escalating shocks over 150 volts, despite hearing cries of protest and pain. Decades earlier, Milgram found that 82.5 percent of participants continued administering shocks. Of those, 79 percent continued to the shock generator's end, at 450 volts.

Burger's experiment did not go that far.

"The conclusion is not: 'Gosh isn't this a horrible commentary on human nature,' or 'these people were so sadistic,'' said Burger.

"It shows the opposite — that there are situational forces that have a much greater impact on our behavior than most people recognize,'' he said.

The experiment shows that people are more likely to comply with instructions if the task starts small, then escalates, according to Burger.
--Mercury News

While this may seem to be a strange bit of news to post during Christmas. What it does for me is reinforce the reason why Christmas remains to necessary.

Pray for peace.