The Milgram Experiment: Obedience to Authority

In July 1961, as the trial of a Nazi war criminal captivated the world, a young psychologist at Yale University posed a disturbing question. Stanley Milgram, who was Jewish, wondered if the horrors of the Holocaust were a product of a unique national character, or something more universal. Could ordinary people, under orders, commit terrible acts? To find out, he placed a newspaper ad for a 'Study of Memory,' recruiting 40 men from New Haven, Connecticut. They were paid $4.50 to participate in an experiment whose true purpose was hidden. Milgram's initial plan was to establish a baseline in America, but what he found at home would prove far more shocking than he ever imagined.