Obedience to Authority Study (Milgram Study)

The purpose of this study was to determine response to authority in normal humans. The researchers told recruited volunteers that the purpose was to study learning and memory. Each subject was told to teach a "student" and to punish the students' errors by administering increasing levels of electric shocks. The "student" was a confederate of the researcher who pretended to be a poor learner and mimicked pain and even unconsciousness as the subject increased the levels of electric shock. 63% of the subjects administered lethal shocks; some even after the "student" claimed to have heart disease. Some of the subjects, after being "debriefed" from the study experienced serious emotional crises.

Ethical Problems: deception, unanticipated psychological harms.







OK, no idea or references on this one... but kind of funny... hmm... guess I shouldn't be a scientist.