In 1961, the controversial experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram explored obedience to authority. According to Milgram’s Obedience to Authority Test (BBC TV), “the experiment illustrated whether ordinary law abiding people would give a stranger a lethal electric shock in the name of science”. The experiment showed that the majority of the participants would give lethal shocks under the name of authority.
In September 2013, UBC Sauder “Frosh” authoritative figures (leaders) introduced chants of an inappropriate nature and were known to be not acceptable in public. The majority of Sauder students, you talk to about the rape chant will give rationalisations such as ‘the leaders told us to’, ‘I felt left out if I didn’t join’, ‘peer pressure’, etc. Ultimately, that it was ‘okay’ to sing due to the fact that the responsibility was with an authority figure.
This demonstrates a fundamental ethical question of whether the media should blame Sauder School of Business for encouraging a ‘rape culture’ or to address a fundamental societal dilemma in which people don’t think critically about what they are doing. It can be compared to the Nazis, to Milgrams experiment to mobs, which illustrate the evident lack of conscious decision making involved in ‘joining the crowd’ or ‘obeying an authoritative figure’.
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