Milgram 1963- Obedience to Authority

• Tested whether people would obey orders to shock someone in a separate room
• Took place at Yale Uni. 40 men participant, responding to newspaper adverts seeking volunteers for a study on "learning and memory"
• The experimenter wore a grey technicians coat. Each participant was introduces to a confederate. They drew lots to see who would act as a "teacher" or "learner", but this was fixed so the participant was always the teacher
• Participant witnessed the confederate being strapped into a chair and connected up to a shock generator in the next room
• the switches ranged from 15 volts labelled slight shock to 450 volts labelled XXX
• Conclusion: Ordinary people will obey orders to hurt someone else, even if it means acting against their conscience
• Participant taught the learner word-pairs over an intercom. When the learner answered incorrectly, the participant had to administer an increasing level of shock
• After 300 V shock, the learner pounded on the wall and made no further responses. If participants hesitated during the process, the experimenter told them to continue
• Results: 26 participants (65%) administered 450V and none stopped before administering 300 V(when the learner banged on the wall). Most participants showed obvious signs of stress like sweating, groaning and trembling