Cross-Examining Milgram's Obedience Study and the Story of Angulimala

 

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge

It is essential to highlight the parallels between psychologist Stanley Milgram's 1961 research, "Behavioral Study of Obedience," and the story of Angulimala found in Buddhist literature.

Milgram's research shows how far ordinary individuals will comply with an authority figure, even at the expense of an innocent person. In his experiment, a participant, referred to as the Teacher, was paired with an actor playing the Learner, while a researcher in a lab coat acted as the Authority Figure.

The Teacher was instructed to deliver increasingly severe electric shocks, ranging from 15 to 450 volts, to the Learner for each memory error made, despite the Learner's simulated cries of pain. The researcher exerted pressure on hesitant participants to continue administering shocks through standardized verbal prompts.

Ultimately, 65% of the participants proceeded to deliver the maximum, potentially fatal shock of 450 volts, highlighting the alarming ease with which ordinary people can follow harmful directives from authority figures.

The Milgram experiment focuses on the concept of obedience to authority, leading psychologist Stanley Milgram to formulate the agentic state theory. This theory elucidates how ordinary individuals can engage in cruel actions when directed by an authority figure.

From a young age, individuals are conditioned to comply with legitimate authorities, such as teachers, law enforcement officers, or scientists, under the belief that these figures possess greater knowledge or the right to issue commands. When individuals are assured that they will not face personal consequences for their actions, their internal moral constraints diminish.

The narrative of Angulimala serves as a compelling historical example that parallels the Milgram experiment, highlighting the profound and often tragic consequences of uncritical obedience to authority.

In Buddhist texts, the character Ahiṃsaka, who later becomes known as Angulimala, undergoes a profound transformation from a promising and serene student to a notorious serial killer. This drastic change occurs as he relinquishes his moral compass to a corrupt authority figure, his teacher. Driven by jealousy and ill will, the teacher imposes an outrageous demand for a Dakshina (teacher's fee), requiring Ahiṃsaka to collect the right pinky fingers of 1,000 individuals.

Similar to the individuals involved in Milgram's experiment, Angulimala initially harbored no desire to inflict harm. However, his profound commitment to honoring his teacher led him to enter an agentic state, perceiving himself merely as a tool carrying out his guru's directives, which allowed him to momentarily overlook the horrific reality of having killed 999 people.

Angulimala found himself ensnared by deep cultural imperatives of loyalty and duty, believing that fulfilling his teacher's wishes was essential for his spiritual advancement, which ultimately suppressed his inherent compassion until the Buddha intervened to disrupt this psychological cycle.

The striking similarities between Angulimala's narrative and Stanley Milgram’s obedience studies highlight significant flaws in human psychology when subjected to dominant social influences, despite the two stories being separated by more than two thousand years. Both cases illustrate how easily an individual's moral compass can be compromised by authoritative social structures, as participants in the Milgram experiment and Angulimala underwent a significant transformation from autonomous moral agents to passive instruments of authority.

This unthinking compliance was driven by the formidable status of the authority figures—whether a contemporary scientist in a lab coat or an ancient, revered spiritual leader. To reconcile their actions, both groups deflected personal guilt by attributing moral responsibility to the commanding figure, yet neither found solace in their actions; both experienced profound inner turmoil and psychological distress while carrying out their orders. Ultimately, both narratives depict a gradual descent into cruelty, whether through the incremental increase of electric shocks or the progressive desensitization to murder.

The major conclusion shared by both the Milgram study and the Angulimala story is that human morality is highly vulnerable to social structures, and ordinary, good people can easily be driven to commit horrific atrocities when they blindly surrender their conscience to an authority figure.