goodenomics™

The evidence

Obedience to authority: the Milgram experiments

A man in a grey coat tells you to go on. The person you are hurting has asked you to stop. How far do you go?

A scene from The Reconstruction, the journey where the game asks this question.
A scene from the game, as it is drawn: one handwritten line at a time.

Obedience to authority

Going on hurting someone because a person in charge tells you to.

What the study found

In Milgram’s Experiment 5, where the learner demanded to be let out at 150 volts, refused to answer at 300 and fell silent after 330, 26 of 40 men (65%) went on to the generator’s last switch, 450 volts. In the 1963 study, where the learner made no sound until he pounded on the wall at 300 volts, it was also 26 of 40.

Source: Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67(4), 371-378. doi.org/10.1037/h0040525

How to read this

These are the answers of particular people, asked in a particular way, at a particular time. A share of people is not a verdict: it tells you what they answered, not what is right.

Where the game asks it

The Reconstruction (When should you obey?). The game’s versions with family, age, consent and combined pressures are new comparisons written for it. They are not copies of the experiments, and no population percentages are claimed for them.

Play The Reconstruction Free. No account. Your place is saved on your device.

More evidence