You’re probably familiar with the obedience to authority studies by Stanley Milgram. The baseline investigation is outlined in Box 1. The results of the study appeared to show that, confronted by the sounds of the learner’s shocking pain, and despite their own agitation and stress, more than half the volunteer ‘teachers’ followed the instructions of the lab-coated authority figure and administered what they believed to be dangerous and perhaps even fatal electric shocks to people just like themselves.
Milgram’s obedience study is a moral fable about the perils of blindly following orders. It seems to say something profound and troubling about human nature. And it’s a powerful story.
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