Obedience to Authority

Half a century ago, social scientist Stanley Milgram carried out a series of experiments. The "teacher" is told to administer electroshocks in progressively more painful degrees to the "learner." The teacher-unaware that the learner is an actor receiving no shocks at all-is the real focus of the study. These controversial and criticized experiments illustrate how people will obey authority regardless of consequences.

"[Milgram's] investigations accomplish what we should expect of responsible social science: to inform the intellect without trivializing the phenomenon."-Science