Project SherlockEst. Knowledge

Paper

1963

Behavioral Study of Obedience

Stanley Milgram

Ordinary volunteers, told by an authority figure to keep going, delivered what they believed were dangerous electric shocks to a protesting stranger far more often than anyone predicted beforehand.

Before you start

FreeIntermediatelink checked 17 Sept 2026

Read these first

Not a difficulty warning — a route. These are in the library too.

Opinions and Social PressureSolomon E. Asch, 1955A third of participants agreed with an obviously wrong group judgement about line lengths at least once, showing conformity to a unanimous majority even on a question with a plainly visible right answer.

Groundwork for

Works in the library that name this one as a prerequisite.

Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey Today?Jerry M. Burger, 2009A partial replication of Milgram's obedience procedure, modified to meet modern ethical limits, found rates of obedience to a similar breakpoint nearly as high as Milgram found in 1963, against the common assumption that people would refuse today.

Filed under Social Psychology in Psychology.