Milgram's Obedience Experiments

In this lecture, Dr Stephen Gibson (York St John University) introduces the obedience experiments conducted by the researcher Stanley Milgram in the 1960s, focusing in particular on: (i) a general definition of obedience as a ‘form of social influence elicited in response to direct orders or commands’; (ii) how the study was set up, including the specific roles of the experimenter, participant and confederate, and look at the experimental procedure in which participants were ordered to administer electric shocks to others; and (iii) some key findings from Milgram’s classic study and what they can tell us about the ways in which people do or do not obey authority.