Destructive obedience in 1924: Landis’ “Studies of emotional reactions” as a prototype of the Milgram paradigm

Abstract

This article briefly reviews Stanley MiJgram’s influential social psychological research on “destructive obedience” (1963. 1965, 1974). It also examines a number of critiques of the meaning and significance of Milgram’s experimentation. and attempts to place role-enactment theories in sociohistorical context. It is then argued that a research programme conducted by the distinguished experimental psychologist Camey Landis (1887-1962), in the mid-1920s. provides intriguing evidence that experimental subjects will continue to obey authoritati ve instructions even in “authentic” situations where they are directed to inflict irreversible harm. Landis’ “Studies of emotional reactions” are of unusual significance because they are not based around deception and the role of “leamervictim” is in no way simulated —live experimental animals were, in fact, clumsily decapitated during the course of experimentation. Landis’ eXperiments are described in detail, and correspondences between the responses of his subjects an...