ABSTRACT
Stanley Milgram was familiar with important social psychology research on conformity and obedience. Obedience to Authority is important because it not only helps explain the actions of Nazi collaborators during the Holocaust (during which many millions of people, most of whom were Jewish, were industrially murdered), but also reveals an aspect of human nature. Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (1974) is one of the most widely known studies aimed at understanding how regular people are capable of committing heinous crimes, such as those carried out during the Holocaust. Milgram explained how his findings mirror what still happens in the world wherever military forces operate, especially when soldiers massacre noncombatants. Milgram felt he had identified central aspects of human nature, not just forces that explain certain atrocities. Obedience to Authority, therefore, continues to be one of the most important studies in the field of psychology.
