Assumptions about our Behavior

According to Milgram [1], there are two assumptions that we make about what guides people's behavior:

• People are generally decent and will not readily hurt the innocent.
• People are autonomous: Unless physically coerced or threatened, an individual's behavior is governed by the their own core personal values.

With this set of assumptions, we underestimate the degree to which people will do dispicable things. When people (college students, faculty, middle class adults, and psychiatrists) were asked what percentage of subjects would proceed to the maxiumum shock, it was estimated that only 1-2% would go all the way. How could we be so wrong?

Since there is quite a bit of evidence that people by-in-large are decent, and usually do not hurt others, it is our assumption about people being autonomous that must be questioned. One of the central themes in Social Psychology is our attempt to understand how an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the social situation.

Reference

[1] Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers.