Obedience in Retrospect

Abstract

Milgram's original paradigm for studying obedience to authority is briefly described, and the main results are summarized. Personal observations of the conduct of the initial studies give added context for interpreting the results. Psychologists' reactions to the Milgram experiments are discussed in terms of ( 1 ) rejecting the research on ethical grounds, ( 2 ) explaining away the results as expressions of trivial phenomena, (3) subsuming obedience to destructive authority under other explanatory rubrics, and ( 4 ) endorsing or rejecting the results in terms of their perceived social relevance or irrelevance. The problem of obedience to authority may well be the crucial issue of our time. The experiments you took part in represent the first efforts to understand this phenomenon in an objective, scientific manner. (Stanley Milgram.

Revisioning Obedience: Exploring the Role of Milgram's Skills as a Filmmaker in Bringing His Shocking Narrative to Life

“…Milgram later invited colleagues, noting, “Young Yale professors invited to view the experiments left exhilarated” (SMP Box 46, Folder 169). As Alan Elms (, p. 23) recalled: “Behind the two‐way mirrors, Stanley Milgram and I (as well as occasional visitors) watched each early subject with fascination and with our own share of tension…” The sessions soon lost the sense of an artificially constructed experiment. “Obedience presented slice after slice of real life, with moral decisions made and unmade every evening.”…”

Situational Features in Milgram's Experiment That Kept His Participants Shocking

“…Milgram himself was more interested in demonstrating the phenomenon than in developing a comprehensive theory of obedience, an approach that initially made it difficult for him to publish his findings in the best academic journals (Blass, 2004). The lengthy * Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jerry M. Burger,Department of Psychology,Santa Clara University,500 El Camino Real,Santa Clara, gap between Milgram's first article on obedience in 1963 and the publication of his book Obedience to Authority in 1974 was due in part to the difficulty Milgram had developing a theory to go along with his intriguing data (Elms, 1995). In that book, Milgram (1974) introduced the notion of an "agentic state" to account for the participants' obedient behavior.…”

Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority “Relationship” Condition: Some Methodological and Theoretical Implications

“…7 In his notes Milgram even argued that the RC was "as powerful a demonstration of disobedience than [sic] can be found" ( [5], p. 202). In 1962, the same year he ran the RC, Milgram wrote his article Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority [6], which according to Elms took a few years to appear in print ( [7], p. 28). This article provided a detailed account of the Proximity Series, the Proximity of Authority Series, and the Institutional Context Condition.…”