New York Times
Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments in the early 1960s are some of the most famous in all of psychology. In them, Milgram tested how far people would go in delivering painful shocks to a peer, when instructed to do so by an authority figure – the experimenter, or scientist. The scientist told the volunteers they were participating in a learning experiment, to test how shocks might improve recall of word associations; and he encouraged them to continue raising the voltage of the shocks when the learner gave wrong answers. The “learner” was in fact an actor, giving many wrong answers, and pretending to be receiving shocks. Most of the study participants went to what they thought was the maximum shock level – 450 volts on the machine – despite loud protests and shouts of pain from the learner.
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From the personal collection of Alexandra Milgram
New York Times
Published: June 30,2008
Stanley Milgram’s famous psychology experiments in the 1960s held a dark mirror to the human face.
