Behavioral Study of Obedience Stanley Milgram (1963) This article describes a procedure for the study of destruc- tive obedience in the laboratory. It consists of ordering a naive S to administer increasingly more severe punish- ment to a victim in the context of a learning experiment. Punishment is administered by means of a shock genera- tor with 30 graded switches ranging from Slight Shock to Danger: Severe Shock. The victim is a confederate of the E . The primary dependent variable is the maximum shock the S is willing to administer before he refuses to continue further. 26 Ss obeyed the experimental commands fully, and administered the highest shock on the generator. 14 Ss broke off the experiment at some point after the victim protested and refused to provide further answers. The pro- cedure created extreme levels of nervous tension in some Ss. Profuse sweating, trembling, and stuttering were typ- ical expressions of this emotional disturbance. One unex- pected sign of tension — yet to be explained — was the regular occurrence of nervous laughter, which in some Ss developed into uncontrollable seizures. The variety of in- teresting behavioral dynamics observed in the experiment, the reality of the situation for the S, and the possibility of parametric variation within the framework of the proce- dure, point to the fruitfulness of further study. 1 O BEDIENCE is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to. Some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living, and it is only the man dwelling in isolation who is not forced to respond, through defiance or submission, to the commands of oth- ers. Obedience, as a determinant of behavior, is of particular relevance to our time. It has been reli- ably established that from 1933–45 millions of in- nocent persons were systematically slaughtered on command. Gas chambers were built, death camps were guarded; daily quotas of corpses were pro- duced with the same efficiency as the manufacture of appliances. These inhumane policies may have originated in the mind of a single person, but they could only be carried out on a massive scale if a very large number of persons obeyed orders. Obedience is the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purpose. It is the dispositional cement that binds men to systems of authority. Facts of recent history and observation in daily life suggest that for many persons obedi- ence may be a deeply ingrained behavior tendency, indeed a prepotent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct. C. P. Snow (1961) points to its importance when he writes: When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. If you doubt that, read William Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. The German Officer Corps were brought up in the most rigorous code of obedience . . . in the name of obedience they were party to, and assisted in, the most wicked large scale actions in the history of the world [p. 24]. While the particular form of obedience dealt with in the present study has its antecedents in these episodes, it must not be thought all obedience en- tails acts of aggression against others. Obedience serves numerous productive functions. Indeed, the very life of society is predicated on its existence. Obedience may be ennobling and educative and re- fer to acts of charity and kindness as well as to de- struction. General Procedure A procedure was devised which seems useful as a tool for studying obedience (Milgram, 1961). It consists of ordering a naive subject to administer electric shock to a victim. A simulated shock gen- 1 Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371–378. STANLEY MILGRAM 1 Behavioral Study of Obedience