ABSTRACT
Stanley Milgram conceded that his experiment results might not be entirely relevant to the Holocaust, since his subjects did not have the goal of harming their victims— unlike those who helped carry out the crimes of humanity suffered by European Jews. Milgram at first thought his experiments showed that Americans could, under the right circumstances, be brought to act as the Germans who murdered Jews had done; he later pulled back from that conclusion. Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View was not without its critics. In general, these lines of criticism fell into one of several themes. In response to criticism, Milgram stressed that violating morals out of obedience is made easier by handing responsibility to the authority giving the orders. Milgram recognized that meaningful social situations only make sense to the actors because these interactions are structured according to norms and rules with which the participants are already familiar.
