The Milgram-Holocaust Linkage: Challenging the Present Consensus
Stanley Milgram's assertion that his “Obedience to Authority” (OTA) experiments replicated, in a laboratory setting, quintessential features of perpetrator behaviour during the Holocaust has been widely challenged. Most contemporary scholarship on this issue, known as the “Milgram-Holocaust (M-...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Pluto Journals
2015-09-01
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| Series: | State Crime |
| Online Access: | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/statecrime.4.2.0128 |
| _version_ | 1797833758712266752 |
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| author | Nestar Russell Robert Gregory |
| author_facet | Nestar Russell Robert Gregory |
| author_sort | Nestar Russell |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Stanley Milgram's assertion that his “Obedience to Authority” (OTA) experiments replicated, in a laboratory setting, quintessential features of perpetrator behaviour during the Holocaust has been widely challenged. Most contemporary scholarship on this issue, known as the “Milgram-Holocaust (M-H) linkage”, argues that Milgram's experiments failed to capture important factors such as ideology, policy, bureaucracy and technology, which more fully explain perpetrator behaviour. However, it is argued here that when the obedience research programme is viewed from a different angle – that of being an emerging policy-driven bureaucratic process in pursuit of “scientific” goals with an impersonal means of inflicting harm – the interplay of factors such as ideology, policy, bureaucracy and technology did in fact play a central role in generating Milgram's high baseline completion rate. Hence, there is a much stronger theoretical connection between the OTA experiments and the Nazi state's perpetration of the Holocaust than the current scholarly consensus allows. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:29:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-65438c7a3b9a41e893f965c951365389 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2046-6056 2046-6064 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:29:19Z |
| publishDate | 2015-09-01 |
| publisher | Pluto Journals |
| record_format | Article |
| series | State Crime |
| spelling | doaj.art-65438c7a3b9a41e893f965c9513653892023-05-03T16:25:44ZengPluto JournalsState Crime2046-60562046-60642015-09-014212815310.13169/statecrime.4.2.0128The Milgram-Holocaust Linkage: Challenging the Present ConsensusNestar Russell0Robert Gregory1University of CalgaryVictoria University of WellingtonStanley Milgram's assertion that his “Obedience to Authority” (OTA) experiments replicated, in a laboratory setting, quintessential features of perpetrator behaviour during the Holocaust has been widely challenged. Most contemporary scholarship on this issue, known as the “Milgram-Holocaust (M-H) linkage”, argues that Milgram's experiments failed to capture important factors such as ideology, policy, bureaucracy and technology, which more fully explain perpetrator behaviour. However, it is argued here that when the obedience research programme is viewed from a different angle – that of being an emerging policy-driven bureaucratic process in pursuit of “scientific” goals with an impersonal means of inflicting harm – the interplay of factors such as ideology, policy, bureaucracy and technology did in fact play a central role in generating Milgram's high baseline completion rate. Hence, there is a much stronger theoretical connection between the OTA experiments and the Nazi state's perpetration of the Holocaust than the current scholarly consensus allows.https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/statecrime.4.2.0128 |
| spellingShingle | Nestar Russell Robert Gregory The Milgram-Holocaust Linkage: Challenging the Present Consensus State Crime |
| title | The Milgram-Holocaust Linkage: Challenging the Present Consensus |
| title_full | The Milgram-Holocaust Linkage: Challenging the Present Consensus |
| title_fullStr | The Milgram-Holocaust Linkage: Challenging the Present Consensus |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Milgram-Holocaust Linkage: Challenging the Present Consensus |
| title_short | The Milgram-Holocaust Linkage: Challenging the Present Consensus |
| title_sort | milgram holocaust linkage challenging the present consensus |
| url | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/statecrime.4.2.0128 |
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