Chapter 1: Understanding the Milgram Experiment

In 1961, psychologist Stanley Milgram, motivated by his family's experiences during the Holocaust, initiated a pioneering study that would profoundly challenge our perceptions of human behavior. His objective was to investigate how ordinary people could engage in acts of extreme cruelty when influenced by authority figures, drawing parallels to the horrific actions of Nazi Germany.

The experiment, widely recognized as the Milgram Experiment, took place in a controlled laboratory environment at Yale University. It involved three primary roles: an authoritative experimenter, a participant designated as the "teacher," and a seemingly innocent "student," who was, in fact, an actor. The framework was crafted to assess the degree to which the teacher would follow orders to deliver increasingly severe electric shocks to the student for each incorrect response given during a memory test.

Milgram's method was both innovative and contentious. Participants were recruite