SOCI 3700 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: United States Public Health Service, Milgram Experiment, Laud Humphreys
Document Summary
The us public health service conducted a long term study of untreated syphilis in 400 poor af-amer men. The men were not told that they were infected. Even after antibiotics that could cure syphilis were discovered, the men were neither informed of their health status nor treated. Researchers in wichita secretly taped jury deliberations to study whether jurors are influenced by lawyer"s showmanship. Details about the study were discovered by press, leading to public outcry about the right to a fair trial. Congress passed a law barring the recording of jury deliberations in response to this study"s ethical issues. If a jury knows they are being recorded, they might change decision. Stanley milgram wanted to study how ordinary people could commit atrocities like the nazis during wwii. He designed a study to evaluate whether individuals would follow the instructions of authority figures even when they knew it was wrong.