Milgram Obedience Experiments

Yale series in which 65 percent of men administered apparently lethal shocks on an authority's instruction.

Specifications & Metrics

type

Social

year

1963

lead

Stanley Milgram

participants

40 men

Relative Scale in Studies

Core Principles & Analysis

• In the baseline condition, 26 of 40 participants administered the maximum 450-volt shock marked as dangerous.
• Milgram framed the work as a laboratory test of the processes behind wartime atrocity compliance.
• Many participants sweated, trembled, or stuttered, and 14 of the 40 showed definite signs of nervous laughter.

Sources

• Milgram (1963), JASP — DOI 10.1037/h0040525