Student essay written in en (native language: French, CEFR level: B1, field of study: Sciences humaines et sociales)

I want to talk about the Alex Dupont experiment. Alex Dupont is a psychologist from the 60s. He conducted a experiment to analyse how people can respect figures of autorities, of the persons in power. In this experiment, there was subjects, that did not know the process, and actors who play roles decided bu Alex Dupont. In this procedure, an actor was sit in an electric chair. The subject, the person evaluated had to decide whether he should submit the actor to electric impulsions.
The point of the experiment was to observe how people can obey blindly to figures of authorities, such as doctors, wearing a white blouse. Surprisigly, the subjects obeyed to the "doctors" to the point that the electocuted the actors. Of course, the actors were not really electrocuted, they did not suffer. However, they acted like they were suffering, by shouting and asking the subject to stop.
There were multiples versions of this experiment, many variables. In fact, the results were not the same according to certain situations. Alex Dupont et al. based their evaluation on the power of the electricity courant that the subject inflicted to the other person. The results were higher in the situation that the actor were in an other room ; because the subject could not see them "suffer". When suffering or injust treatments are inflicted to someone, it is more bearable when we can not see them. That is one the mecanism that can explain events such as the Shoah, because not everyone could see the Jews suffered ; many of the Nazis did not see the Genocide, so they did not felt responsible.
The results were also higher proprortionnally to the "doctor" behavior. People inflicted more pain when the actor was very rigid and severe. They felt like they had no choice : they lost their ability to think by themselves. This experiment showed that people can commit acts that they do not want to do, when sumbitted to figures of authorities. The results were quite shocking ; only a few of the people evaluated standed by their values, and refused to electrocute the person. The other persons followed blindly the order of the figure of authorities. The results shocked me because it showed me how people can lose their ability to think by themselves and lose their values. It is important to understand that the persons evaluated followed the orders because they thought it was a powerful figure. The results were different when people were confronted to a "normal" person, other than a doctor. This experiment demonstrate how people trust persons that impressed them, like individuals wearing uniforms. We can generalize this process to cops or members of the military for instance. It is very concerning to understand how some figures that seem powerful can influence the regular persons.
This experiment could not be conducted nowadays, because the experiments conducted by researchers in psychology must follow strict ethic guidelines. Even if the electric chair did not really inflicted real electricity to the person, the subjects really thought it was real. The unfortunate consequences of this experiment were that some people suffered from trauma. The evaluated individuels also felt shame of their behavior after the experiment.
This experiment had been replicated times. My favorite experimented based on the Milgram one consist of a TV show. In this adaptation, the subjects were casted to participate to a TV show. They did not know what would happen. The process was quite similar ; the actor was in an other room. So the subject could not see them. The actor was also on an electric chair. But this time, the researchers told the subjects that they would work in team with the actor. The actors would have to answer to questions. It was the evaluated individuels who had to read the questions out loud to the actors.
If the actors did not find the correct answers, they would be electrocuted by the subjects. Like in the original experiment, the electricity was less strong at first, and then gradually became more powerful and dangerous (different levels of voltage). The subjects really thought they worked in team with the victim, because they would win a lot of money if they succeded to answer the questions correctly. The money of would be shared between the two.
In this condition, the subjects would also be exposed to a lot of pressure. The TV presentator was also seen as a powerful person. The presentator was also very intimidating and rigid. The presence of a large public was also impressive. This experiment was very interesting, because it showed how people adaptated to the rules. They did not disobey but they developped strategies. For instance, they had differents intonations when they exposed the answers to their partners. A majority of subjects showed hesitation to inflict electricity to their partners, but they felt forced by the presentator, the cameras and the public. A few of them resented their partners when they gave incorrect answers.
In this experiment, conducted in the 2000's, the majority of the subjects showed submission to authorities. A few of them even subjected their parteners to extrem high volts levels (voltages ?). Moreover, the actor also pretended to suffer a lot, by screaming and asking their partners to stop. Only a minority of the persons tested frankly refused to obey. Some persons had the audacity to clearly disapprove the rules. They did not hesitated to show opposition to the figure of authority.
The most interesting and intriguing part of the experiment was to see the reactions of people afterwards. The research team asked people how they felt about this experiment and how they behaved. Some individuels were very shameful and shocked to see how they were weak. The funny part to me was when people told they knew it was a social experimented. They pretended to know that it was not real, and that their partners were actors. Obviously, these subjects lied because they did not want to admit that they submitted to the figure of authority.
I love this experiment because it made me able to question my behaviours and the society in general.