Human nature is not cruel - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Whereas, Kitty’s case has been subjected to several inaccuracies and misrepresentations, many other similar cases have been reported recently. Clearly, then, the “bystander effect” can have a strong impact, especially on social behavior, leaving people asking why exactly does it occur? And why do people not assist others when they are part of a crowd?
More and more people are starting to pay attention and consider such kind of events as these. What leads people to become more apathetic, immoral or even cruel? Is human nature cruel? Human beings are not born cruel. A baby is always naïve and pure, they are not intentionally cruel to others. I believe that humans are not always cruel depending on certain circumstances surrounding an individual.
Furthermore, Milgram’s experiment is all about obedience to authority. It found that 65 percent of participants deferred to the authority of the experimenter and administered the final 450 volt "shock”. The other 35 percent refused to continue with the experiment. This experiment tells us that people always obey authority. I don’t believe the 65 percent of subjects were cruel just because they completed the experiment. They wanted to stop the experiment, but the experimenter kept emphasizing things such as “the experiment requires that you continue, go on please, the shocks are painful but they are not harmful.” It made participants very nervous and confused, meaning that the experimenter’s authority pushed them to be cruel and even hurt innocent people.
In brief, Milgram’s experiment is not enough proof that human nature is cruel, but people will be cruel under certain circumstances. Any normal person, usually, will not easily hurt others just for the sake of it. And if they do hurt someone they will definitely feel guilty. Someone however could be wondering that, if human nature is not cruel, then why are there so many murderers in the world? I believe murdering someone is cruel, but ...Download file to see next pagesRead More