Behind the Shock Machine
The Untold Story of the Notorious Milgram Psychology Experiments by Gina Perry
In 1963, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram reported an appalling discovery: 65 percent of volunteers would deliver electrical shocks to another person at levels they believed were lethal if an experimenter asked them to. Ordinary people, it seemed, could easily be convinced to do monstrous things by authority figures.
The famous obedience experiment resonated in postwar America, where the trials of Nazi officers were fresh in the public mind. Milgram’s work lent scientific credibility to fears about the human capacity for cruelty, says science writer Perry.