To investigate the process of obedience and to see if ordinary people are capable of destructive behaviour because of the power of a legitimate authority
Milgram examined justifications for acts of genocide during World War Two. The defence used was that Nazis were just obeying orders
I advertised in the local newspaper asking for participants of all occupations
A sample of forty 20-50 year old men volunteered themselves
XXX 435 450 XXX 435 450
Public Announcement WE WILL PAY YOU $4.00 FOR ONE HOUR OF YOUR TIME Persons Needed for a Study of Memory *We will pay five hundred New Haven men to help us complete a scientific study of memory and learning. This study is being done at Yale University. *Each person who participates will be paid $4.00 (plus 50c carfare) for approximately 1 hour's time. We need you for only one hour: there are no further obligations. You may choose the time you would like to come (evenings, weekdays or weekends). *No special training, education or experience is needed. We want: Factory workers Businessmen Construction workers City employees Clerks Salespeople Laborers Professional people White-collar workers Barbers Telephone workers Other
I'm the teacher, and my job is to read out words and the learner must correctly remember them
I gave mostly wrong answers on purpose
A teacher and a learner is chosen- the learner is a confederate but the teacher doesn't know this
I told the teacher that he was to shock the learner for every wrong answer he gave, increasing the voltage each time
The shock generator had labels for every group of four switches
I want to stop!
The experiment requires that you continue.
Please continue.
You have no other choice, you must go on
It is absolutely essential that you continue
In conclusion, human beings will obey destructive orders simply because an authority figure is telling them to. This was found even though from a young age we are told not to harm others, and also despite the experimenter having no real power over them.
65% of the participants went to 450v.
100% went to 300v.
22.5% stopped at 300v.
3 participants had full blown seizures
The participants shook, trembled, sweat, bit their lips, groaned and dug their fingers into their flesh
