How Evil Are You?

Appropriate Halloween post?

Would you hurt someone just because someone in authority told you to?  If you said no – I’m guessing there’s a 70% chance you’re wrong.  That’s roughly the result from an updated version of the Milgram Experiment that aired last night on the Discovery Channel for the show Curiosity.

For those not familiar with the Milgram Experiment, from Wikipedia:

“The experiments began in July 1961. Milgram devised his psychological study to answer the question: “Was it that Eichmann and his accomplices in the Holocaust had mutual intent, in at least with regard to the goals of the Holocaust?” In other words, “Was there a mutual sense of morality among those involved?” Milgram’s testing suggested that it could have been that the millions of accomplices were merely following orders, despite violating their deepest moral beliefs. The experiments have been repeated many times, with consistent results within societies, but different percentages across the globe.[citation needed] The experiments were also controversial, and considered by some scientists[which?] to be unethical or psychologically abusive, motivating more thorough review boards for the use of human subjects.“

In both studies (old and new) the subjects, in about70% of the cases, clicked a lever to administer a shock above the level where the other “participant” (an actor) had cried out saying they were experiencing heart problems and wanted to stop the experiment.  In other words, about 70% of the real subjects administered shocks that, from the evidence they had in front of them, could be life-threatening to the other “participant.”

Authority is a well-known influence trigger.  This experiment was designed to see if we would bow to the wishes of authority even if we thought it was wrong.  And we do.  A lot.  This is why I harp a lot on the impact our Senior Leaders have on our organizations.  They are the authority figures.  They are people we look to for guidance and direction.

Don’t believe how evil we can be… check out the video on Discovery (RSS and email readers may need to click through to see video.  Sorry about all the commercials – Discovery just doesn’t get good social sharing.)

Part Deux

The show last night had two parts.  The first was a simple retelling of the Milgram Experiment from the 60’s.  The second part is the part that got me to write this post.

For the second part of the experiment they added another person to administer shocks.  In other words there were two people who had the option to shock the test subject.  However, one of the two was another actor who, when the experiment hit the point where the “shockee” screamed out that they were having problems, bowed out.  The goal was to see if the other person – the real subject – would bow out or go one.  In the segment they showed last night the person bowed out when they saw the “plant” bow out.

What’s This Got Do With Recognition and Incentives

This…

We use other people’s behaviors as guide posts.  When left by ourselves – solely influenced by our “authority” figures – we are much more likely to follow orders.  However, when given information that others “like us” are doing something different – we factor that information into our decision criteria.

When companies use Peer2Peer programs they are in effect, adding another level of influence into the mix – just like the additional shocker – which helps the group make better decisions on what is right and acceptable behavior.

Highlighting what the group is doing through reward and recognition helps you create a culture and helps you reinforce the correct behaviors.

Now this won’t help you fix a bad culture – one where executives and the rank and file are rewarded for subterfuge and duplicity – it does help you spread the impact of good behavior over a wider group of behaviors creating a much stronger culture.

What do you think?  Does adding another point of view to your reward and recognition program through either Peer2Peer – or even customer feedback – increase the chances you will reward appropriate behaviors? 

Related articles

• Gamification of Incentives and Recognition (i2i-align.com)
• Risk Kills Behavior Change (i2i-align.com)
• How Much Ambiguity Is In Your Incentive Program? (i2i-align.com)