ABSTRACT
Stanley Milgram (1933-84) was an American psychologist* best known for his work on obedience to authority; psychology is the study of the ways in which the mind determines our behavior. Obedience to Authority describes 24 experiments that show how ordinary people will follow the commands of an authority, even if this involves inflicting pain on someone else. Milgram's 1974 book Obedience to Authority summarized studies of more than a thousand participants. Ordinary people were told they were administering painful electric shocks as part of an experiment to measure the effects of punishment on learning and memory; Milgram recorded and analyzed their behavior. Milgram's book was written at the height of the Vietnam War, during which the United States fought in Asia with the aim of limiting the spread of the political system of communism. Milgram wondered whether such extensive obedience reflected long-established cultural traditions among the German people— traditions of following rules and obeying orders.
