More often than not human behavior is influenced by other external factors. Such factors can either be social or cultural. Studies carried out by researchers reveal that human to some extent will respond to something in a particular manner because of the prevailing social or cultural circumstances. Hence human will act the way they do not because they think it’s right or wrong but because the surrounding demands of them to act in that manner.
Milgram, a scientist at Yale University, studied the social impact on person’s behavior concerning authority. He came up with results that explain a lot of human actions. His main finding is that a person may harm another human if the action is termed right or is as a result of authority (McLeod, 2007). The results could best describe the actions of the people who orchestrated the Holocaust. To Milgram, the people were merely following authority. The study also implies why some people in authority today may be ruthless.
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Consequently, some other people have an influence on how an individual will react to a situation. Milgram’s findings are indirectly backed up by other studies by Asch Solomon and Zimbardo. According to Asch Solomon sometimes people will act the way they do to conform to a larger groups norms. This explains the behaviors of individuals in a scenario where they want to fit into a dominant group. It also accounts for peer pressure and all peer related activities. Consequently, Zimbardo’s study sums up all the research by Asch and Milgram. A human being has the capability of turning evil given the right circumstances. Zimbardo doesn’t believe in a clear line of bad and good which is impermeable (Wergo, 2006). According to him, the line is permeable given the circumstances. All these experiments imply that the social surrounding greatly influences a person's behavior and response to a situation.
References
McLeod, S. (2007). The Milgram experiment. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org
Wergo, E. (2006). Bad Apples or Bad barrels? Zimbardo o the Lucifer effect. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org
