Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion · chapter 6 · id influence-c6-01-milgrams-obedience-experiments
“Milgram's obedience experiments (1961-62) demonstrated that 65% of ordinary people would administer lethal electric shocks to a stranger simply because an authority figure in a lab coat instructed them to do so.”
CONTESTEDconfidence: high⚠ extracted by pipeline, re-audit pending
Receipts
Milgram (1963), Behavioral Study of Obedience, JASP 67(4)DOI registry: valid
26 of 40 subjects (65%) administered the maximum 450-volt shock in the standard proximity condition.
Haslam et al. (2014), Meta-Milgram: Empirical Synthesis, PLOS ONE 9(4)source alive
Synthesis of 21 of Milgram's 23 conditions (N=740) yielded an overall obedience rate of 43.6%, not 65%. The 65% figure comes from one specific condition, not a representative average.
Perry, Brannigan, Wanner & Stam (2020), Credibility and Incredulity in Milgram, Social Psychology Quarterly 83(1)DOI registry: valid
Only about half of participants fully believed the shocks were real. Of those who believed, 66% DISOBEYED. The 65% obedience rate is inflated by participants who suspected it was fake.
Kaposi (2022), Second Wave of Critical Engagement with Milgram, SPPC 16(4)DOI registry: valid
The second wave of Milgram criticism (2004-present) revealed methodological irregularities, standardization lapses, experimenter deviations from protocol, and questions about the validity of the deception.
This claim is a stable, citable object. If you can falsify a verdict, tell us. Corrections are loud here.