Stanley Milgram is renowned for his pioneering research on obedience to authority. In his famous 1960s experiments, participants were instructed to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to a learner (who was actually an actor) whenever they answered questions incorrectly.
Despite hearing the learner’s protests, many participants continued delivering shocks when urged by the authority figure in a lab coat. Milgram’s findings revealed that ordinary people are surprisingly likely to obey authority figures even when it means harming others.
His work highlighted the powerful role of authority in shaping behaviour and provided important insights into events like wartime atrocities.
