What does Milgram's (1963) research show?

Milgram wanted to try to explain why atrocities, like the Holocaust, happened. His research is all about obedience to authority. Obedience means doing what you have been told to do by someone in authority. Authority is the power or right to give orders, make decisions and enforce obedience. In his experiment, 65% of participants continued to give the maximum 450V shock, despite protests from a confederate 'learner' to stop. 100% went up to 300V which can cause serious harm. This demonstrates that normal people, like you and me, follow orders from an authority figure, to the extent of seriously harming or killing another human being. Milgram concluded that obedience to authority is ingrained in all of us due to the way we are brought up.