An illustration shows an experimenter (confederate) writing on a notepad, a teacher (participant) wired to a shock generator, and a learner (confederate) controlling the shock generator from another room.
Two callouts from the experimenter read, please continue, and, the experiment requires that you go on. Text beside the illustration reads, the teacher who operated the shock generator in Milgram’s experiment was the only actual participant. The experiment involved two confederates: a learner who pretended to suffer shock administered by the participant, and an experimenter who prompted the participant to continue (Milgram, 19 65).
Another illustration below shows a series of 30 small red lights numbered from 1 to 30. A scale corresponding to the lights ranges from 15 volts to 450 volts in increments of 15 volts. There are 30 switches below the scale in which switch 10 is on and the corresponding red light numbered 10 glows. 15 volts is labeled slight shock, 75 volts is labeled moderate shock, 135 volts is labeled strong shock, 195 volts is labeled very strong shock, 255 volts is labeled intense shock, 315 volts is labeled extreme intensity shock, and 375 volts is labeled danger: severe shock. Text pointing to the red light numbered 10 reads, experimenter, get me out of here! I refuse to go on! Text pointing to the red light numbered 12 reads, I can’t stand the pain! Text pointing to the red light numbered 14 reads, (Grunt) I’ve had enough! Text pointing to the red light numbered 20 reads, (scream) I absolutely refuse to answer any more! Get me out of here! A callout below the illustration reads, on the control panel of Milgram’s shock generator, the participant would see 30 switches clearly labeled as delivering a range from slight shock (15 volts) to danger: severe shock (375 volts) and beyond. The learner produced scripted responses at every level (Milgram, 19 63).
A line graph below the illustration plots the percent of participants still obedient on the vertical axis against shock level in volts on the horizontal axis. The horizontal axis ranges from 15 to 450 in increments of 15 and the vertical axis ranges from 0 to 100 in increments of 20. The approximate data from the graph is as follows: the curve labeled actual behavior starts from the point (15, 100), passes through the points (130, 100), (135, 90), (150, 85), (180, 80), (270, 80), (285, 75), (300, 67), (315, 67), (340, 63), and ends at (450, 63). Text pointing to the curve after (340, 63) reads, more than 60 percent. The curve labeled predicted behavior starts from the point (15, 100), passes through the points (60, 93), (75, 82), (90, 78), (135, 54), (150, 34), (165, 30), (180, 18), (195, 16), (210, 16), (285, 4), and ends at (0, 450). A callout beside the graph reads, before the experiment, Milgram and a panel of experts predicted most participants would not proceed beyond 150 volts, when the learner explicitly demands to end the experiment. In fact, actual results show that many participants obeyed the experimenter’s commands all the way to the highest shock level. (Data from Milgram, 19 65).