ABSTRACT
First, the history that led to the development of the experimental scheme used by Stanley Milgram is extraordinarily interesting; and second, it is related to numerous myths. Many popular science articles as well as numerous descriptions of Milgram’s studies refer to the Holocaust and other crimes committed by the Nazis as the primary reason for the scholar’s interest in obedience to authority. It is not so simple though, and it is very probable that Milgram chose the procedure, consisting in electrocuting the subject as punishment for making mistakes, to a large extent, by sheer accident.
