Milgram's Shocking Experiment

Participants volunteered for the study by replying to an advert placed in a local newspaper by Milgram. The advert asked for New Haven men aged between 20 and 50 years old. The study was to take place at Yale University in the Psychology department.

When the participants arrived, they were met by the experimenter in a grey lab coat who then introduced them to Mr Wallace (a stooge playing a participant). They were both told that the experiment was testing the effects of punishment on learning where one of them would play the teacher/ punisher and the other the student/ victim.

It was explained to them that the punishment would be given in the form of electric shocks and all 3 of them then went into an adjoining room where the participant would watch Mr Wallace be strapped…