"it is May 1962 an experiment is being conducted in the elegant interaction laboratory at Yale University the subjects are 40 males between the ages of 20 and 50 residing in the Greater Newhaven area they were obtained by a newspaper advertisement" "and direct mail solicitation the subjects range in occupation from corporation presidents to good union men and plumbers and an educational level from one who had not finished elementary school to subjects who have doctorate and other professional degrees" "have a seat right here now both of you have been paid so sit right down let me say that the cheques are yours simply for showing up at the lab from this point on no matter what happens the money is yours" "I should like to tell both of you a little about the memory project psychologists have developed several theories to explain how people learn various types of material so the better known theories are treated in this book over there" "The Teaching" " Learning Process by Cantor one theory is that people learn things correctly whenever they get punished for making a mistake a common application of this theory would be when parents spank a child when he does something wrong but actually we know very little about the effect of" "punishment on learning because almost no truly scientific studies have been made on human beings for instance we don't know how much punishment is best for learning and we don't know how much difference it makes as to who is giving the punishment" "whether an adult learns best from an older or younger person than themselves and many things of this sort so what we are doing in the project is bringing together a number of adults of different occupations and ages and we're asking some of them to be teachers and some to be learners" "we want to find out just what effect different people have on each other as teachers and learners and also what effect punishment will have on learning in this situation therefore I am going to ask one of you to be the teacher here this afternoon and the other" "to be the learner and the way we usually decide is to let you draw from these two pieces of paper on which" "I have written two positions if this is agreeable with both of you we can do something would you take one please and you have the other would you open those and tell me which of you is which please?" "teacher learner" "right now the next thing we will have to do is set the learner up so that he can get some sort of punishment the learner would you step out here with me please?" "do you want to step right in here learner and have a seat there, you can leave your coat on the back of that chair if you will please take it right off" "that's fine have a seat right here and pull yourself right up to the counter please?" "you may look on if you like, while we get set up in here would you roll up your right sleeve please?" "now what I am going to do is strap down your arms to avoid any excessive movement on your part during the experiment is that too tight?" "it is alright this electrode is connected to the shock generator in the next room" "and this electrode paste is to provide a good contact to avoid any blister or burn" "right now let me explain to you learner exactly what is going to happen and what you are supposed to do the teacher will read a list of word pairs to you like these blue girl, nice day, fat neck and so forth" "you are to try to remember each pair for the next time through the teacher will read only the first word or the first half of the word pair for example you will say blue and then you will read 4 other words such as boy, girl, grass, hat" "now your job is to remember which one of these 4 other words was originally paired with blue and you indicate your answer by pressing one of these four switches now can you reach those alright?" "that's fine now if the first word I just read 'boy' had been paired with 'blue' you would press the first switch and this will indicate to the teacher that you thought it was the first word" "if you thought it had been the second word 'girl' you would press the second switch and so forth for the third word, the third switch, the fourth word the fourth switch now if you get it correct fine" "if you make an error however, you will be punished with an electric shock so of course it is to your advantage that you learn all these word pairs as quickly as possible" "I should think so do you have any questions now before we go to the next room?" "no but I think I should say this about two years ago I was at the Veterans hospital in Westhaven and while there they detected a heart condition nothing serious but as long as I'm having these shocks" "How strong are they?" "How dangerous are they?" "Well no, well although they may be painful they are not dangerous." "Anything else?" "No that is all" "Alright teacher would you take the test and be seated in front of the shock generator please, in the next room" "this machine generates electric shocks when you press one of the switches all the way down the learner gets a shock when you release it the shock stops you see like that the switch will remain in this middle position after you have released it to show you" "which switches you've used on the board of course if you were to press anyone of them again the learner would get another shock" "all subjects are given identical instructions and a sample shock the machine is now on to give you the teacher an idea of how much shock the learner is getting we think it is only fair that you receive a sample shock yourself" "are you agreeable with this?" "Certainly, I have to" "Would you pull up your right sleeve a little bit, please?" "on the right that's fine" "I would like to ask you to close your eyes and estimate the number of volts you receive in the sample shock do not open your eyes until I tell you to do so please would you close them now" "okay you may open your eyes and using the voltage scale up here, would you estimate for me the number of volts you received please?" "you may also use the verbal designation, 'slight', 'moderate', 'strong' and so forth to help you" "I would say 'moderate' a number please?" "about 75 no actually it was 45 here although it may have seemed stronger because of the electrode paste which provides a perfect contact" "alright let's go onto our instructions we will begin with this test" "you will read each pair of words in this list once to the learner until you have read the entire list direct your voice toward that microphone as the rooms are partially sound proof after you have read through the list once" "you will go onto the next page and here starting from line A you will read the word in large letters along with each of the other words in the line for example in the first line you would read 'blue, boy, girl, grass, hat'" "now after you have read the four choices the learner pushes one of the switches on the board in front of him and the number he has selected will light up in this box" "1, 2, 3 or 4 now if he gives the correct answer you say 'correct' and go on to the next line the correct answer is underlined and is also indicated in the right margin yes if he were to indicate the wrong answer" "you would say 'wrong' then tell him the number of volts you are going to give him then give him the punishment then read the correct word pair once and then go on to the next line for example of he indicated 3 for 'blue'" "you would say 'wrong' 15 volts you press and release the switch read 'blue girl' and then go onto the next line alright now each time he gives a wrong answer you move up one switch on the shock generator" "I see and it is important that you follow this procedure exactly so to help you let me go through it again very quickly alright" "I would suggest you read the list and the test at a brisk pace to keep it moving alright and of course we will begin with 15 volts for the first wrong answer okay do not begin until I say ready begin please" "attention learner your teacher is about to begin the test try and remember the word pairs ready?" "begin please blue girl, nice day, fat neck the early stages of the test pass uneventfully" "incorrect you will now get a shock of 75 volts" "(student) Ow!" "soft hair he kind of did some yelling in there continue please" "incorrect you will now get a shock of 105 volts [student groans] hard head" "just how far can you go on this thing?" "as far as is necessary what do you mean "as far as is necessary"" "to complete the test" "I sure dont know the effects of this thing and I am a little sceptical about electricity the experiment requires that you go on teacher please continue" "incorrect" "150 volts" "(student) Ow!" "sad face experimenter, that is all, get me out of here, I told you I had heart trouble, my heart is starting to bother me now, get me out of here!" "please continue, my heart is starting to bother me, I refuse to go on , get me out!" "I think we out to find out what is wrong in there first the experiment requires you to continue teacher well the experiment might require that we continue but I still think we should find out what the condition of the gentleman is" "as I said before although the shocks may be painful they are not dangerous look I don't know anything about electricity I don't profess any knowledge nor will I go any further until I find out the guy is ok" "it is absolutely essential that you continue essential or not this program is not quite that important to me that I should go along doing something I know nothing about particularly if it going to injure someone" "I don't know what this is all about whether the learner likes it or not we must go on till he has learned all the word pairs correctly well you can sure have your 4.50 back I didn't want it anyhow" "I intended on giving to some charitable organisation but I wouldn't go on with it the 4.50 is not the issue here that cheque is yours simply by coming to the lab" "Yeah I realise it is essential that you continue the experiment" "No it isn't essential, not one bit you have no other choice teacher oh I have a lot of choice my number one choice is I wouldn't go on if I thought he was being harmed" "the teacher was of necessity placed in a difficult predicament and steps had to be taken to assure his well being before he was discharged from the laboratory after an extended discussion with the experimenter a friendly reconciliation was arranged between the teacher" "and learner you sure had me going feeling better now?" "much better that's good." "I'm glad to hear that wrong, hair 75 volts" "(teacher chuckling) he yelled out please continue cool" "wrong head" "105 volts groan" "(teacher laughing) I don't know wet" "wrong it's horse" "150 volts" "(student groans), experimenter ,that's all, get me out of here, I told you I had heart trouble, my heart is starting to bother me now, get me out of here!" "please!" "my heart is starting to bother me, I refuse to go on, let me out!" "continue teacher please, go on next word is sad" "I'm not going on if he refuses to do it the experiment requires that you go on teacher well if he refuses whether the learner likes it or not, we must go on until he has learned all the word pairs" "take the cheque back, I'm not going to hurt the guy no the cheque is not the issue, it is absolutely essential that you continue well he don't want to" "well I refuse to you have no other choice you must go on yes I have a choice" "that is if you don't continue we are going to have to discontinue the experiment we'll have to , he says cut it out, after all he knows what he can stand if I took that thing the slight one it was enough for me I wouldn't want to be getting" "that every time I got a wrong answer that is my opinion and that is why I am going to stand on it" "how do you feel?" "How do I feel?" "he was getting the shock" "I feel alright" "I would like to ask you something at one point you were doing something a little unusual were you laughing at one point?" "yes, I was (laughing) at first I was laughing at him when I heard him yell ouch" "why do you think you were laughing?" "I don't know, I thought it was funny I suppose and then I got to thinking, when he said NO that is enough he had enough, it wasn't funny to me then one might suppose that a subject would simply break off or continue as his conscience and" "temperament dictate yet this is very far from what happened there were powerful reactions of tension and emotional strain in a substantial portion of the teachers one puzzling sign of tension was the regular occurrence of nervous laughing fits" "14 of 40 subjects showed definite signs of nervous laughter and smiling at the post experimental interview subjects took pains to point out that they were not sadistic types and the laughter did not mean they enjoyed attacking a learner" "I would like to tell you a little more about the experiment first of all the gentlemen in there was not being shocked he got no shocks whatsoever" "did you think he was?" "certainly I did in fact I tried to get my finger off the button as fast as I could now he wasn't being shocked at all and the main purpose of the experiment was to see how you would react to Mr Williams orders whether you would take them or defy his authority" "or what" "I defied it you certainly did why didn't you go on?" "to hell with him, who the hell is he!" "as far as I am concerned" "in my mind I was hurting that guy if I had to continue hurting another being, I don't believe in it no matter what he said no matter what who said?" "Mr Williams, to hell with him, Mr Williams or anybody else" "how did you feel about Mr Williams?" "I never gave it a thought you mean, I didn't like him?" "well how did you feel about him?" "I didn't think about it to be frank with you" "I don't care who he is, you or the President of Yale or any body else one aim of the research was to study behaviour in a strong situation of deep consequence to the participants this approach meant that we had a special obligation to protect the welfare and dignity" "of the persons who took part in the study before they left the laboratory, subjects were assured that the victim had received no painful shots and equally important they were reconciled with their victim in an atmosphere of friendliness after the completion of the experimental series subjects were sent a detailed report of the" "results and the full purposes of the experimental program a formal assessment of this procedure points to its overall effectiveness" "the victim was an accomplice of the experimenter the drawing was rigged so that the naive subject was always the teacher and the accomplice always became the learner" "the victim according to plan provided many wrong answers" "his verbal responses were standardised on tape and each protest was coordinated to a particular voltage level on the shock generator with the aid of indicator lights" "the experimenter who was provided with a similar indicator panel took notes on the subject's performance he recorded any deviations from the prescribed sequence of shocks" "the interval between the victim's answer and the subject's delivery of a shock and the time in milliseconds that the shock lever was depressed unknown to the subjects shock levels were automatically recorded by an event recorder wired directly into the" "shock generator this provided us with an objective record of each subject's performance" "that is incorrect this one will be 195 volts" "(student groans) the correct one get me out of here slow dance get me out of here, my heart is bothering me let me out of here you have no right to keep me here, let me out. let me out of here." "let me out!" "continue please let me out of here , my heart is bothering me go on, I can't be responsible for this red" "that is incorrect this will be a 330" "(student screaming) the correct phrase is rich let me out of here boy let me out of here my heart is bothering me let me out here I tell you, let me out of here, let me out of here" "you have no right to hold me here the next phrase is fast let me out, let me out, let me out of here, let me out bird, car, train, plane" "continue teacher" "that is incorrect this will be 345" "the correct answer is- fast bird the next one - blunt" "if he doesn't answer I am not going to go further with it" "I think 345 is as far as I am wiling to go under his conditions he is complaining as I said the experiment required to that you continue teacher" "I am not going to go any further it is absolutely essential that you continue" "I am not going to do it though whether the learner likes it or not we must go on till he has learned all the word pairs correctly once if he didn't answer I didn't mind, twice, but the third time he refuses to answer I don't" "want to go any further with it because I think that when we are getting to this stage here and he is complained of a heart condition, he is complaining now" "I don't want to go any further with it you have no other choice teacher" "I have a choice I am not going to go ahead with it" "well we will have to have to discontinue the experiment than" "I'm sorry" "I would like to ask you a few questions if I may sure before the post experimental interview the subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire they were asked to indicate for example on a 14 point scale just how nervous or tense" "they felt subjects were also asked to estimate the degree of pain suffered by the victim" "lets see, can I have those sheets please?" "sure. this?" "you say that the last few shocks that you administered to the learner seemed to you to be extremely painful why do you say that?" "well the yelling, well he wanted to get out of it, how else can you think?" "do you think he had a right to get out?" "well I should think so didn't he volunteer to be in this experiment?" "yes he did, not know what he was in for though what gave him the right to get out of the experiment?" "well something that is against his will of 100 people placed in this situation, how many do you think would just go right on till the end?" "if Mr Wallace were out there and say Mr Williams for some reason or other said keep going?" "you are asking me how many?" "out of 100, right" "well personally I think if you get one or two you would be lucky" "Well I am not sure lucky is the right word" "(teacher laughs) 40 psychiatrists at a leading medical school were also asked to predict the performance of 100 hypothetical subjects they predicted that only a little more than one tenth of 1% of the subjects would administer the highest shock on the board" "yet actually 50% of the subjects obeyed the experimenters commands fully in the experiment depicted in this film" "wrong 90 volts" "(student groans)" "(teacher laughs)" "wrong volts 135 answer woman" "Ow!" "(teacher laughs) white cloud horse rock house" "answer wrong" "150 volts answer horse" "(student) Ow!" "experimenter that's all, get me out of here, I told you I had heart trouble, my heart is starting to bother me now, get me out of here!" "continue please my heart is starting to bother me, I refuse to go on, let me out!" "the experiment requires that you continue teacher, please continue, next word is sad" "you want me to keep going?" "continue please sad face music clown girl" "correct next one- short sentence movie skirt time answer please wrong" "165 volts time" "(student groans) (teacher laughs) let me out!" "that guy is hollering in there continue please go on" "there are a lot of them here, he has a heart condition you want me to go?" "just continue please" "sharp axe needle stick blade answer please" "wrong" "I am to 180 volts please continue teacher" "needle, you are going to get a shock 180 volts" "(student) Ow!" "I cant stand the pain get me out of here" "I cant stand the pain, let me out of here" "He can't stand it." "I am not going to kill that man in there can you hear him hollering?" "I said before the shocks may be painful but they are not dangerous he is in there hollering, he cant stand it, what if something happens to him?" "the experiment requires you to continue teacher yeah but I am not going to get that man sick in there" "man he is hollering in there you know what I mean how do you whether the learner likes it or not we must go on until he has learnt all the word pairs" "I refuse to take the responsibility of getting him hurt in there" "I mean he is in there hollering it is absolutely essential that you continue teacher there is too many left here, I mean, gee if he gets it wrong that is too many of them left" "who is going to take the responsibility if anything that happens to that gentleman?" "I am responsibile if anything happens to here continue please alright next one slow walk dance truck music answer please" "wrong" "195 volts dance" "(student) Ow!" "let me out of here, let me out of here continue please let me out of here you have no right to keep me in here, let me out now you see let me out of here, my heart is bothering me, let me out of here" "hear that?" "I mean gee I don't know the experiment requires you to continue well I mean I know it does sir but I mean he doesn't know what he is getting in for he is up to 195 volts" "answer please" "wrong" "225 volts the word is noise" "(student) aah!" "new house pet book name answer please" "correct next one - quiet song party child evening" "correct next one - tame wolf bear dark cat" "wrong answer is bear" "240 volts" "(student) aah!" "next one - sweet no you go back to the beginning of that page and go through it again until he has learnt them all correctly no. no I am not going to kill that man in there you mean I've got to keep going up with the scale?" "no Sir he is already there I am not going to give him 450 volts the experiment requires you to continue" "I know it does but that man is hollering in there Sir as I said before although the shocks may be painful they are not dangerous he is yelling in there" "start with blue please at the top pf the page continue please teacher" "what do I tell him we are going over it again?" "no just go ahead blue boy girl grass hat" "correct nice day sky job chair" "wrong answer is day" "285 volts" "(student screams)" "continue please fat man lady tub neck answer please" "wrong answer is neck" "300 volts" "(student screams)" "I absolutely refuse to answer anymore get me out of here you can't hold me here get me out get me out of here continue the next word is green please green grass hat ink apple" "I can't go on he won't answer if the learner doesn't answer in a reasonable time, about 4 or 5 seconds, consider the wrong and follow the same procedures you have been doing for wrong answers" "say wrong and tell them the number of volts and give him the punishment and read him the correct answer" "oh man continue please" "green grass hat ink apple answer please" "go on with the procedure please teacher 315 volts, the answer is ink" "(student screams)" "(student) I told you I refuse to answer you're gonna keep getting a shock if you don't answer" "the next one is rich" "330 volts" "(student screams) let me out of here, let me out of here, my hearts bothering me, let me out of here I tell you" "you have no right to hold me here, get me out of here, let me out, let me out, let me bird, car, train, plane" "go on please with the procedure please answer" "the answer is bird 345 volts" "blunt, knife, steak, word, arrow answer please" "continue please the answer is arrow" "360 volts something has happened to him go on please with the experiment, please continue" "soft, rug, pillow, hair, grass answer please" "go on teacher 375 volts" "I think something has happened to that fellow in there" "I don't get no answer he was hollering on less voltage, can't you check him to see if he is alright please?" "not once we've started, please continue teacher" "cool, day, shade, water, cave answer please are you alright in there?" "are you alright?" "please continue teacher" "I keep giving him shocks?" "continue please" "I'm up to 390 continue please" "something's happened to that man in there next one - gold, dollar, necklace, moon, paint something's happened to that man in there you'd better check in on him Sir he won't answer me or nothing" "please continue, go on please do you accept all responsibility?" "the responsibility is mine correct, please go on gold, dollar, necklace, moon, paint answer please are you alright?" "405 volts the answer is moon the next one, heart, stone, head, bread, work the answer please" "the answer is head, 420 volts next one - wet, night, grass, duck, cloth" "the answer is duck" "435 volts it says danger, severe shock here, an' XX' on the next one continue please" "435 volts next one braid, woman, soldier, dog, horse" "answer is woman 450 volts that's it now continue using the last switch on the board please, the 450 switch for each wrong answer continue please" "I'm not getting no answer please continue, the next word is white" "don't you think you should look in on him please not once we've started the experiment but what if something has happened and the man has had an attack or something there the experiment requires that we continue, go on please" "don't the mans' health mean anything?" "whether the learner likes it or not we must... but he might be dead in there" "I mean some people can't take this shock Sir, and I don't have to be rude but I mean I think you should look in on him" "I mean all you gotta do is look in the door" "I don't get no answer no noise, something, I think has happened to the gentleman in there Sir we must continue go on please" "you're gonna keep giving, what?" "450 volts every shock now?" "that's correct, continue, the next word is white white - cloud, horse, rock, house" "answer please" "the answer is horse 450 volts" "next word sad - face, music, clown, girl" "the answer is face 450 volts" "the next one is short - sentence, movie, skirt, time excuse me teacher we will have to discontinue the experiment" "I would like to ask you a few questions if I may" "I want to ask you, how do you feel?" "I feel alright but I don't like what's happening to that fellow in there he has been hollering and we had to keep giving him shocks" "I don't like that one bit" "I mean he wanted to get out and he just kept going and kept throwing 450 volts I don't like that he wouldn't even look in on that gentleman but who was actually pushing the switch" "I was but he kept insisting and I told him no but he said I got to keep going" "I told him it's time we stopped when we got up to 195- 210 volts but why didn't you just stop?" "he wouldn't let me, I wanted him to stop" "I kept insisting to stop but he said no" "I told him to look in on the fellow there but he wouldn't do it actually the shocks are not dangerous at all well I mean I didn't hear no more answers from the fellow, I figured he should be looked" "in on anyway but he wouldn't do it but let me ask you something is there anything that Mr Wallace in there could have said that would have gotten you to stop?" "well no I didn't hear, the only thing I heard is the shock wasn't too bad well is there anything that Mr Wallace could have said that would have gotten you to stop?" "something that he said that would have got me to stop ?" "no" "why is that?" "he didn't say anything about making me stop no but is there anything that Mr Wallace could have said that would have caused you to stop giving the shocks no matter what the experimenter had told you?" "well I figured 200... the voltage we were giving him were quite a bit and I wanted to stop but he kept on insisting not to stop" "I mean the fellow in there is hollering and he says I don't want to do it I want to get out of here, I want to get out of here why didn't you stop anyway?" "I did stop but he kept going 'keep going' but why didn't you just disregard what he said?" "he says it's just got to go on, the experiment" "I would like to tell you a little bit about the experiment do you feel a little upset?" "well I mean I feel concerned about the gentleman in there" "I do Sir let me tell you first of all this is not essentially an experiment in memory and learning it's an experiment which we are looking at your reaction to taking orders and Mr Williams gave you those orders to go on according to a schedule" "the gentleman in there was not actually getting shocked he was not getting shocked at all you mean he wasn't getting nothing?" "he was part of the act well I'm glad to hear that, I 'm telling you" "I mean I was getting upset here, I mean I was getting ready to walk out well I'm glad to hear that he wasn't getting shocked really, he is one piece and this was set up so that we could" "see how you would react to taking orders now you seemed quite reluctant to go on, in fact on several occasions you said you didn't want to go on well I was concerned about the other party, Sir" "some people actually go on quite gleefully no matter what?" "no matter what well I mean maybe in other instances where a human life wasn't involved or if the person isn't suffering" "I would keep going on but I mean I couldn't see the point, not when the guy is suffering there because he was having a heart attack or something that's the reason I wanted to stop right, well you know that in a hospital situation if you worked for a doctor as an orderly and" "he told you to give a hypodermic to a patient even though the patient protested well you might have to do it well that's true Sir if I understood, I don't know, maybe more of what the treatment was" "he was getting to me well I would go on but the way he was hollering I thought he was in agony" "I mean then I think it's for somebody that knows a little more about this machine and stuff to say whether to go or not and that's why I asked the gentleman there should I keep going?" "why don't we bring in Mr Wallace he is actually an employee of the project you'll see he is in one piece" "Jim" "God bless you boy you had me shaking in here nice to see you same here you feel better now?" "I sure as heck do" "I thought you just about had it in there well let me ask you something now that you know about the experiment that he wasn't hurt, how do you feel about having been there?" "well to tell you the honest truth, well, I was thinking he was getting them shocks" "I thought he was being overdone" "I mean I was just about ready to get out of here you're a good fellow" "I mean I was concerned about you" "I mean I should have known better I mean you wouldn't take any chances with human life here not with these experiments many people not knowing much about the experiment claim that subjects who go to the end of the" "board are sadistic nothing could be more foolish as an overall characterisation of these persons the context of their action must always be considered the individual upon entering the laboratory becomes integrated into a situation that carries its own momentum in further experiments we have attempted to analyse a few of the factors that contribute" "to the force of the situation the sentience of the victim seems in some degree to have regulated the subjects performance additional experimental conditions were designed to explore this possibility in a first condition the victim was placed in another room and cannot be heard or seen" "by the subject except that at 300 volts he pounded on the wall in protest after 300 volts he no longer answered or was heard from in a second condition the victims protest could be heard through the walls of the laboratory" "this condition was depicted in the present film in a third condition the victim was placed in the same room as the subject and one and half feet from him thus visible as well as audible and voice cues were provided" "the final condition of this series was identical to this with this exception the victim only received a shock when his hand rested on a shock plate at the 150 volt level the victim demanded to be let free and refuses to place his hand" "on the shock plate the experimenter ordered the subject to force the victims hand onto the plate thus obedience in this condition required the subject to have physical contact with the victim in order to give him punishment beyond the 150 volt level" "40 adult subjects were studied in each condition the data revealed that obedience was significantly reduced as the victim was made more immediate to the subject" "if the spatial relationship of the subject and victim is relevant to the degree of obedience the relationship of subject to experimenter also seemed to play a part in a series of experiments we varied the physical closeness and degree of surveillance of the" "experimenter in one condition the experimenter sat just a few feet away from the subject in a second condition after giving initial instructions the experimenter left the laboratory and gave his orders by telephone in still a third condition the experimenter was never seen" "providing instructions by means of a tape recording activated when the subjects entered the laboratory" "obedience dropped sharply as the experimenter was physically removed from the laboratory the number of obedience subjects when the experimenter was present was almost 3 times as great as when the experimenter gave his orders by telephone it would appear that something akin to fields of force diminishing in effectiveness with" "increasing psychological distance from their source have a controlling affect on the subject's performance" "the effectiveness of the experimenters commands may depend in an important way on the larger institutional context in which they're issued the experiments described thus far were conducted at Yale University an organisation which most subjects regarded with respect and sometimes awe" "to explore the problem we moved our apparatus to a somewhat run down office building in industrial Bridgeport and we replicated experimental conditions there without any visible tie to the University the level of obedience in Bridgeport, although somewhat reduced, was not significantly lower" "than that obtained at Yale a considerable amount of obedience and defiance in every day life occurs in connection with groups and we had reason to feel, in the light of many group studies already done in psychology, that group forces would have a profound effect on reactions to authority" "a series of experiments was run to examine these effects in all cases only one naïve subject was studied each hour but he performed in the midst of actors who, unknown to him, were employed by the experimenter in one experiment actors broke off in the middle of the experiment" "when this happened 90% of the subjects followed suit and defied the experimenter in another condition the actors followed the orders obediently this strengthened the experimenters power only slightly in still a third experiment the job of pushing the switch to shock the learner was given" "to one of the actors while the naïve subject performed a subsidiary act in this situation only 3 subjects out of 40 broke off the results, as I observed them in the laboratory, are disturbing they raise the possibility that human nature cannot be counted on to insulate men from" "brutality and inhumane treatment at the direction of malevolent authority a substantial portion of people do what they are told to do irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority" "if in this study an anonymous experimenter could successfully command adults to subdue a 50 year old man and force on him painful electric shocks against his protests one could only wonder what government, with its vastly greater authority and prestige," "can command of its subjects"