Christopher Rovira
SSS100.1907
Professor Steve Lang
4/20/09
The Power of Social Structure
Many have wondered why the citizens of Nazi Germany could have allowed the fascists
like Adolf Hitler to go on a terrorizing rampage across Europe, killing many innocent people in
the process. Many people condoned the silence of the citizens, not rising against someone who
was obviously out of his mind. What most people don’t understand is that if they were in the
same position as those citizens of Nazi Germany, they would have probably done just as they
did. If you told a person that they would have followed Hitler just as all those people did they
would disagree immediately. That person probably has not heard about researchers Stanley
Milgram and Philip Zimbardo. Milgram’s research on obedience and Zimbardo’s work on the
pathology of imprisonment tells us greatly of the power of social structure being able to change
the way people act and behave in society. Milgram’s laboratory experiment to measure
obedience was so shocking that many people could not believe that Americans were just as
obedient when given orders just as the Germans were. Zimbardo’s recreation of a prison
environment also showed that when given roles to play out, you get absorbed into the role you
have been given, also showing the power of social structure. Without these two researchers we
wouldn’t be able to see the facts that no one would believe would happen.
It was thought that the people of Nazi Germany were somehow nurtured to be more
obedient. That was the only possible way to explain why they went along with Hitler’s plan of
mass extermination. Stanley Milgram’s original experiment was to test the obedience factor of
both Americans and Germans, and hopefully prove that Germans followed orders more often
than Americans did. His experiment never made it to Germany because the results in America
alone were too shocking, literally. Milgram’s experiment to test obedience was to see how far a
person could go shocking another person before they would disobey the experimenter and
refuse to pull the switch to shock them. The board went from 15 volts all the way to 450 volts.
The experiment was fixed, as the “teacher” was the only one not in on the plan. As the
“learner” answered questions incorrectly, the “teacher” would increasingly shock them with
more voltage, all while the experimenter calmly as the test subjects to continue. What was
unexpected was that 60% of the test subjects went all the way to the end of the board. Milgram
was surprised by the results of the experiment. This experiment shows that when calmly asked
to continue doing something even thought it might be immoral, you most likely would continue
doing such a thing. After the experiment, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. stated, “If I were born in Germany,
I suppose I would have been a Nazi, bopping Jews and gypsies and Poles around, leaving boots
sticking out of snow-banks, warming myself with my sweetly virtuous insides.” (Meyer 75) This
shows that no matter what you say you would do now, you cannot predict the outcome unless
you are in the situation yourself. Milgram has proved that by changing the social structure, you
can mold the way people act.
When placed in certain roles in society, some usually act upon what is required to fulfill
those roles. If set in the role of a passive person, you would tend to not do things that are very
aggressive. However, when placed in roles, such as a prisoner or a prison guard, your roles
might turn into a master/servant relationship. Philip Zimbardo wanted to experiment on what it
meant psychologically to be a prisoner or a prison guard. Twenty-four men were selected to be
part of the experiment. Half were selected to be prisoners and half were selected to be the
guards of the mock prison that Zimbardo had established. After six days the experiment had to
be terminated because the test subjects had adapted so much to their roles that it started to
become a reality. Prison guards began to physically abuse the prisoners, while the prisoners
became servile, and scared for their survival. As Zimbardo noted, “In less than a week, the
experience of imprisonment undid a lifetime of learning; human values were suspended, selfconcepts were challenged, and the ugliest side of human nature had surfaced.” (Zimbardo 69)
It had gotten so bad that the prisoners no longer thought of it as quitting an experiment, but
having to be paroled from jail. When they were denied parole, they went back to their lives as
prisoners without a rebellion. More than one-third of the guards in the experiment became
tyrants, abusing their power over the prisoners. Zimbardo brought up three important factors
of situational control over behaviors: they are often not obvious and subtle and we can often
avoid entering situations that we might be controlled in and that we label as “weak” or
“deviant” people in those situations who do behave differently from how we believe we would.
(Zimbardo 69) This situation reminds us of the horrific events at Abu Ghraib. The American
soldiers became so tyrannical with their power that they started dehumanizing the Iraqi
prisoners. They made them do horrible things, such as strip naked and take pictures all
huddled up with other prisoners. The prisoners had no rights, and could do nothing but go
along with these heinous incidents, or face the wrath of the soldiers. These events show us a
great example of the power of social structure and roles people are placed in. With certain
roles, it can affect many people without realizing it.
When someone cannot believe that there are people who allow human rights to be
violated without protest, you really cannot speak unless you imagine yourself in that position. If
you were in Nazi Germany, chances are you would have gone along with Hitler and his evil plan
of genocide. This has been proven in Milgram’s experiment of obedience, that people, when
asked to continue on with an event that could endanger the health of another person, would
most likely continue with little hesitation. Also, the power of roles in society can also shows the
power of socialization. Zimbardo shockingly showed us that when given roles to conform to,
you eventually will embrace those roles, even if you are designated as a prisoner. You lose your
train of thought and forget, just like those in his pathological experiment of imprisonment, who
did not think of it as an experiment but as reality. Both of these researchers have showed that
it is possible to transform the way people act and behave in society through the power of social
structure.