Pragmatic implicature explains obedience in Milgram’s experiments

Evidence

When uttered in different contexts, sentences sometimes “mean more than they say.” This is the psycholinguistic notion of pragmatic implicatures. For instance, I am teaching a seminar. John the student comes late to the seminar and leaves the door to the hall open as he slinks to a seat near the door. If I say, “John, it is noisy out in the hall,” I report a fact about noise, but surely mean that John should reach out and shut the door. It may go a step further; I may be telling John that his lateness is noticed and marked up against his name. This provides an interesting retrospective illumination of Milgram’s experiments. At some points the experimenter said to the shock giver, “Please go on; the experiment requires that you go on.” Because the shock giver knew that the experimenter had heard the victim’s protests, he read the meaning of that sentence to be, roughly, “I am in charge here and I am sure that the Social organization for the production of evil 543 learner is not getting harmed. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4045

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines pragmatic implicature, the notion that sentences mean more than they literally say depending on context.
• XREF: connects to: Entry into evildoing is gradual self-adaptation rather than Milgram’s sudden agentic shift — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 4042