milgram's initial interest in obedience was sparked by the trial of adolf eichmann in 1961 for war crimes. he was in charge of the nazi death camps and his defence was that he was only obeying orders. this led milgram to propose that when obeying a destructive authority figure, people believe they are acting for someone else as an agent. an agent experiences 'moral strain' when they realise what they are doing is wrong but they feel powerless to disobey