We owe Gina Perry — along with others such as Nestar Russell and Stephen Gibson — a great debt of gratitude for delving into the Milgram archives (housed at Yale University) and developing new insights into what are possibly the best-known and most important psychology studies of all time.
Perry’s conclusion is that we must always question the stories we have been told, however well known and however enshrined in the textbooks. We entirely agree. Indeed, the motto of the Royal Society, the oldest scientific institution in the western world, is nullius in verba meaning ‘take nobody’s word for it’. In science you don’t believe someone because of their status or their title. You decide on the basis of the evidence. And often the evidence tells a very different story to what the researchers themselves would have us believe. That isn’t just true of Milgram, it is true for all scientific research.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
