Milgram Obedience Experiment
Can obedience make good people cruel?
4.5 (43)
49 mins
Explore how the Milgram experiment revealed the ease with which ordinary people obey harmful orders from authority figures. Discover how social pressure, setting, and perceived roles can override personal morality and empathy.
Ep 1:
The Question That Started the Shocks
In the shadow of the Eichmann trial, a Yale psychologist designs a deceptive study to answer a haunting question: how far will ordinary people go when authority commands them to hurt another?
Ep 2:
Bending the Machine of Obedience
Milgram reshapes his lab again and again, revealing how proximity, prestige, and peer defiance can push obedience up or down—and meet the rare rebels who refused to obey.
Ep 3:
Inside the Room: Roles and Rationalizations
As Hannah Arendt's 'banality of evil' sparks fierce debate, we step back into the lab to unpack how teacher, learner, and experimenter each shift blame to make cruelty feel routine.
Ep 4:
Echoes of the Experiment Today
From Zimbardo's prison experiment to Milgram's tragic early death, we trace his legacy—and ask what his findings mean for obedience, authority, and courage in today's digital world.
Discussions (16)
Juan
Level 5 · 9 mo agoTrust the science, right?
Raheem
Level 10 · 9 mo agoYale getting people to inflict pain for forty bucks is impressive ROI. In my line of work you usually have to pay a consultant six figures to destroy morale that efficiently.
Brent
Level 8 · 9 mo agoZimbardo and Milgram went to high school together.
