40 males volunteered to take part in a study on momory, aged 20-50
Teacher (participant)
Learner
The learner unattached themselves when the teacher left the room
The teacher begins feeling uneasy about causing pain, but continues
Milgram took two people into a room and did a random allocation of who was going to be the learner and who was the teacher. This was controlled so the participants were always the teacher.
Milgram showed the teacher how the learner would be wired with electrodes and given an electric shock (going up in 15 volts) if they gave an incorrect answer. Then gave the teacher a 45-volt shock to see how it felt. They began the learning process.
Pre-recorded yells and screams were played, imitating what the learner would be going through if the electric shocks were real.
The teacher questions the scientist to see if they are ok and that they can not be harmned during this experiment.
67% of participants went up to 450 volts and 100% of participants went up to 300 volts before stoping the experiment.