The author conducted a partial replication of Stanley Milgram’s
(1963, 1965, 1974) obedience studies that allowed
for useful comparisons with the original investigations
while protecting the well-being of participants. Seventy
adults participated in a replication of Milgram’s Experiment
5 up to the point at which they first heard the learner’s
verbal protest (150 volts). Because 79% of Milgram’s
participants who went past this point continued to the end
of the shock generator’s range, reasonable estimates could
be made about what the present participants would have
done if allowed to continue. Obedience rates in the 2006
replication were only slightly lower than those Milgram
found 45 years earlier. Contrary to expectation, participants
who saw a confederate refuse the experimenter’s
instructions obeyed as often as those who saw no model.
Men and women did not differ in their rates of obedience,
but there was some evidence that individual differences in
empathic concern and desire for control affected participants’
responses.
