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Evie is in the second year of her Arts degree and has to conduct a practical, real-world experiment as part of Psychology 201. The experiment involves finding out how far ordinary everyday people (or at least ordinary everyday first year University students) would go when asked to torture other people whom they didn’t know just because they were told to by an authority figure. Clearly, the scenario had links with regimes such as Nazi Germany, which was still fresh in the minds of her parents’ generation at the time. The results were frightening.
Evie meets her new best friend Helen, who is the only one out of a large group of first-year students who has the moral courage to defy "authority" and refuse to torture a perfect stranger (actually an actor) just because they can't answer some questions correctly. Simon is the actor and John is one of his "torturers".
The thing that most disturbed me was that by the time the dial had been notched up to three quarters of its maximum level and Simon, sounding tearful and almost incoherent, was begging John to stop, it had gradually become all Simon’s fault. It wasn’t our fault because we were directing him, it wasn’t John’s fault because he was doing it, it was Simon’s fault because he couldn’t answer the questions properly! When Simon totally misunderstood the twentieth and last question and gave an answer that was not just wrong but irrelevant, John dialed the fake shocker to its next and highest setting, pressed the red button and snarled over Simon’s shrieks, “What’s wrong with you, you fucker? The questions are fucking easy. It’s your own fucking fault.”
When it was Helen's turn, things didn't go according to plan.
When Simon got the third question wrong on cue, Helen looked at the button and said “What’s the dial for?” No one else had asked that question. We explained. Helen clarified. “You mean I press this button to give the man next door an electric shock just because he gave me a wrong answer, and I use this dial to give him a bigger electric shock for each subsequent wrong answer?” It was a funny feeling. The role of interrogator had suddenly shifted. I couldn’t speak for the others, but I felt vaguely ashamed. Nonetheless, I spoke up clearly. “Yes, that’s correct."
“Fuck off,” said Helen, got up and walked out.
Click HERE for Teachers Pet Chapter 10 or here to Contact Evie.