Editing Milgram experiment (section)

==Results==
Subjects were uncomfortable administering the shocks, and displayed varying degrees of tension and stress. These signs included sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting their lips, groaning, and digging their fingernails into their skin, and some were even having nervous laughing fits or seizures.<ref name="ObedStudy" /> 14 of the 40 subjects showed definite signs of nervous laughing or smiling. Every participant paused the experiment at least once to question it. Most continued after being assured by the experimenter. Some said they would refund the money they were paid for participating.

Milgram summarized the experiment in his 1974 article "The Perils of Obedience", writing:

{{Blockquote|The legal and philosophic aspects of [[obedience]] are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much [[pain]] an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' [participants'] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects' [participants'] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.

Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Milgram, Stanley |title=The Perils of Obedience |magazine=Harper's Magazine |year=1974 |url=http://home.swbell.net/revscat/perilsOfObedience.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101216075927/http://home.swbell.net/revscat/perilsOfObedience.html |archive-date=December 16, 2010 }} Abridged and adapted from ''Obedience to Authority''.</ref>}}

The original Simulated Shock Generator and Event Recorder, or ''shock box'', is located in the [[Archives of the History of American Psychology]].

Milgram, and other psychologists, subsequently later performed variations of the experiment throughout the world, with similar results.<ref>{{harvnb|Milgram|1974}}</ref> Milgram later investigated the effect of the experiment's locale on obedience levels by using an unregistered, backstreet office in a bustling city, in contrast to the respectable environment of Yale University. The level of obedience dropped from 65% to 47%.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Explanations for Obedience -Variations of Milgram (1963) |url=https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/explanations-for-obedience-variations-of-milgram-1963#:~:text=Milgram's%20conducted%20his%20original%20research,in%20the%20level%20of%20obedience. |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=www.tutor2u.net |language=en}}</ref> suggesting that scientific credibility could very well play a larger role than just authority. A more telling variable was the proximity of the "learner" to  the "experimenter": empathy was diminished the further from each other they were. Variations involving groups were also tested.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

[[Thomas Blass]] of the [[University of Maryland, Baltimore County]] performed a [[meta-analysis]] on the results of repeated performances of the experiment. He found that while the percentage of participants who are prepared to inflict fatal voltages ranged from 28% to 91%, there was no significant trend over time and the average percentage for US studies (61%) was close to the one for non-US studies (66%).<ref name="blass">{{cite journal |last=Blass |first=Thomas |title=The Milgram paradigm after 35 years: Some things we now know about obedience to authority |url=https://neuron4.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/Psyc591Readings/Blass1999.pdf |journal=Journal of Applied Social Psychology |volume=29 |issue=5 |pages=955–978 |year=1999 |doi=10.1111/j.1559-1816.1999.tb00134.x |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331122626/http://neuron4.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/Psyc591Readings/Blass1999.pdf |archive-date=March 31, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Blass02">{{cite journal |author=Blass, Thomas |title=The Man Who Shocked the World |journal=Psychology Today |volume=35 |issue=2 |date=Mar–Apr 2002 |url=http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200203/the-man-who-shocked-the-world}}</ref>

The participants who refused to administer the final shocks neither insisted that the experiment be terminated, nor left the room to check the health of the victim as per Milgram's notes.<ref>Discovering Psychology with Philip Zimbardo Ph.D. Updated Edition, "Power of the Situation," http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6059627757980071729 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080316222920/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6059627757980071729 |date=March 16, 2008 }}, reference starts at 10min 59 seconds into video.</ref>

Milgram created a documentary film titled ''Obedience'' showing the experiment and its results. He also produced a series of five social psychology films, some of which dealt with his experiments.<ref>[http://www.stanleymilgram.com/films.php Milgram films.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090905054126/http://www.stanleymilgram.com/films.php |date=September 5, 2009 }} Accessed October 4, 2006.</ref>