What was the Milgram Experiment?
The Milgram Experiment was a series of psychological experiments conducted at Yale University beginning in 1961. Stanley Milgram, creator of the experiment, was inspired by the recent Nazi war trials to test the extent to which people would follow the instructions of an authority figure, even when the instructions were morally dubious. Milgram published the results of the Milgram Experiment in a 1963 article, and later in more depth in his 1974 book, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. Participants in the Milgram Experiment were told that it was for a study on the nature of learning. The test subjects were men between the ages of 20 and 50 with a variety of educational backgrounds. Both the person conducting the experiment and one of the two participants in each test were actors. The volunteer was told that he was randomly selected as the “teacher,” while the other participant, actually an actor, was the “learner.” The volunteer was then instructed to ask the “learner” questi
