Throughout history, people have committed horrific atrocities, particularly during times of war, simply because an authority figure told them to do them. A classic example is the Nazi atrocities in which the German people obeyed their leaders and participated in the murder of millions of Jewish people. Using Milgram's study on obedience, the principles of deindividuation, diffusion of responsibility, prejudice and discrimination, discuss whether people who commit such atrocities are morally defective, or if most people would behave similarly if put in similar situations.

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The Answer is The answer should include the following information: (1) Milgram demonstrated that most people will obey an authority figure, even if that meant delivering a potentially lethal shock to a complete stranger. In his study, a teacher (the participant) read word pairs to a learner (actually a paid actor-no one was actually shocked) who was seated in another room and connected to a shock generator. The teacher could hear the learner but could not see him. Every time the learner got a word pair incorrect, the teacher was instructed to shock the learner by flipping a switch on the shock generator. The shock intensified with each incorrect answer, and often the learner would scream and demand to be released. If the teacher wanted to stop the experiment, the experimenter seated in the same room as the teacher would calmly instruct the teacher to continue. Despite screams, complaints of heart pain, and a sudden cessation of all noise following a particularly high-voltage shock (Is the learner dead?), 62 percent of the teachers continued to obey the experimenter and delivered the strongest shock under investigation; (2) Milgram's results suggest that there is nothing unique about the behavior of the German people during the Nazi regime and that most people will obey authority figures, even when they are instructed to do immoral things. In fact, the variables at play in the real world often are considerably more powerful than those arranged by Milgram. In Milgram's study, for example, the participants were not threatened with punishment (or death) if they failed to obey the experimenter. In the real world, dictatorships often employ these behavioral control techniques. In addition, in the real world, atrocities are directed by an authority figure-committed not by a single person but by a group of people. In such instances, people have a tendency to forget their own personal moral values and be swept up with the sentiment of the group (deindividuation). People may not feel personally responsible for their actions because they were committed by the group and not themselves (diffusion of responsibility). Finally, atrocities are often committed against members of other groups. Anti-Semitism was rampant in Europe, even before the Nazis rose to power and the Jewish people were evaluated negatively (prejudice) and discriminated against. Because the Jewish people were part of the out-group, it was considerably easier to get people to commit these atrocities.

Throughout History, People Have Committed Horrific Atrocities, Particularly During Times