Milgram Experiment Redo

The original Milgram Experiment took on a terrifying side of humanity. The experiment sought to explain what motivates an average person to take part in, or passively allow, mass atrocities like the Holocaust. Milgram’s haunting conclusion was sharp in its simplicity: They did it because someone told them to.


Milgram reported that 2/3 of his study’s participants thought they electrically shocked another human being at the highest possible voltage in response to the eerie line from the social scientist, “The study requires that you continue.”




It seems the question of would humanity behave the same way in a repeat experiment was a question that Dr. Jerry Burger, of Santa Clara University, decided to try and answer. He repeated the Milgram Experiment, with a few tweaks. Primary changes were that participants could not be led to believe the fake electrical shocks went above 150 volts, and he tried to make it very clear that participants could leave at any time.


Burger obtained similar results to Milgram. It does seem that Burger’s experiment was at least a little more ethical. Probably more so than the French game show equivalent where, study participants thought they were on TV, not in a social science experiment. Even the audience was full of unknowing study participants, not actors. The game show experiment found that, encouraged by the crowd, the game show contestants “shocked” another person 80% of the time (the recipient of the “shocks” was an actor).

It makes sense that some level of deferment to authority and mob mentality must be present in order to have a cohesive society. The challenge is to figure out where that cohesiveness ends and personal responsibility starts. At some point in the future we may be able to encourage free will without fear of anarchy. For now, it is the fear of anarchy that makes the line between free will and mob mentality so hard for people to navigate.