It is a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. The Milgram experiment investigated whether study participants would obey commands to administer increasingly painful “shocks” to other participants who were actually actors only pretending to be shocked. The original experiment found that 65 percent of participants deferred to the authority of the experimenter and administered the final 450 volt “shock”. Let’s first see the experiment!

1. Famous Experiment
with “electricity” by
Stanley Milgram
and His Conclusions
about Destructive
Submission to
Authority
Osamah A. Almushreqi
For: Dr. Evgeny Pashkovsky

2. Stanley Milgram
About him
– American social psychologist (August 15, 1933 – December 20, 1984)
– Best known for his controversial experiments on obedience conducted in the
1960s during his professorship at Yale
– A PhD in social psychology from Harvard University
– Taught at Yale, Harvard, and then for most of his career as a professor at the
City University of New York Graduate Center
– Died 1984
Key terms
Authority figures: A person that displays
a form or a symbol of authority.

3. Key Points of the Experiment
– It is a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Yale
University psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s.
– The Milgram experiment investigated whether study participants would obey
commands to administer increasingly painful “shocks” to other participants who
were actually actors only pretending to be shocked.
– The original experiment found that 65 percent of participants deferred to the
authority of the experimenter and administered the final 450 volt “shock”.
– Let’s first see the experiment!
What is it?
About
Findings
Conclusion?

4. The Experiment
The naïve participants drew slips of
paper to determine their roles, but
unknown to them, both slips said
“teacher,” and the confederate always
claimed to have the slip that read
“learner. ” At this point, the “teacher”
and “learner” were separated into
different rooms where they could
communicate but not see each other.
The confederate
Acting as a participant.
The experimenter

5. The volunteer subject used a list of
word pairs to play the role of
“teacher” with
the “learner”.
1. The teacher
began by reading
the list of word
pairs to the
learner.
2. They would read
the first word of each
pair and four possible
answers.
3. The learner would press a button to indicate his response
4. If the answer was incorrect, the teacher was instructed
administer an electric shock to the learner, with the
voltage increasing in 15-volt increments for each wrong
answer.
5. If correct, the
teacher would read the
next word pair.

6. The teacher was given a sample of the shock
that the “learner” would supposedly receive
during the experiment.
electro-shock
generator
He believed it
was a shock
After the confederate was separated
from the subject, the confederate
set up a tape recorder integrated
with the electro-shock
generator, which played pre-
recorded sounds for each shock
level.

7. 1. I have a
heart attack!
2. After a number of voltage level
increases, the confederate started to
bang on the wall that separated them
from the participant
3. After several times banging on the wall and
complaining about their heart condition, all responses by
the learner would cease.
4. At this point, many people indicated their
desire to stop the experiment and check on the
learner.
The Experiment (follow)

8. Some test subjects
paused at 135 volts
and began to
question the purpose
of the experiment.
Different Responses
Most continued after being
assured that they would not
be held responsible.
[1]

9. The Experimenter with Different Responses
[2]

10. Results
– Before the experiment, Milgram polled fourteen Yale University senior-year psychology majors to predict the
behavior of 100 hypothetical teachers.
– All of the poll respondents believed that only a very small fraction of teachers would be prepared to inflict the
maximum voltage.
65%
(26 of
40) 450-volt shock
Though many were very
uncomfortable doing so
Paused and questioned
the experiment, some
saying they would refund

11. Interpretations
– The first is the theory of conformism, based on the Solomon Asch conformity
experiments, describing the fundamental relationship between the group of
reference and the individual person. It states that a subject who has neither
ability nor expertise to make decisions, especially in a crisis, will leave decision
making to the group and its hierarchy.
– The second is the agentic state theory, where, according to Milgram, “the
essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view
themselves as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes, and
they therefore no longer see themselves as responsible for their actions…”
Professor Milgram elaborated two theories explaining his results:
[1,3]

12. Conclusion
The Milgram experiment found that
most people are willing to obey
authority figures over their personal
objections.

13. References and Licenses
1. The Milgram Experiment- The Power of Authority, LibreTexts libraries, licensed
by CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Retrieved from:
https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Sociology/Book%3A_Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.05%3A_Group_Dynamics/6.5D%
3A_The_Milgram_Experiment_The_Power_of_Authority#:~:text=milgram%20experiment%3A%20It%20was%20a,conflicted%20with%20their%20personal%20conscie
nce.
2. Heller, B. retrieved from:
https://www.slideshare.net/pioneeringbee?utm_campaign=profiletracking&utm_medium=sssite&utm_source=ssslideview
3. Stanley Milgram (1963), Behavioral Study of Obedience, The Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology. Vol 67(4), Oct 1963, 371-378. Retrieved from:
https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040525

14. Any Questions?