Milgram Experiment: Obedience to Authority

The Experiment That Proved People Will Obey Almost Anything The Milgram Experiment showed ordinary

people were willing to “electrocute” strangers because an authority figure told them to.

Many participants broke down crying yet kept pressing the button. Conducted in the

early 1960s at Yale University, the study was designed to understand obedience to authority after

World War II. Participants believed they were administering real electric shocks to another person

for incorrect answers. The shocks increased in intensity, eventually labeled as dangerous or

lethal. In reality, no shocks were delivered but the participants didn’t know that.

Over 60% continued to the highest voltage simply because an authority insisted. The experiment revealed