Fifty shades of obey

Abstract

Stanley Milgram, a 26-year-old assistant professor at Yale University was riveted on the trial of Adolf Eichmann for war crimes in which he insisted that he was merely following orders. This gave Milgram an idea for a research project that would become one of the most controversial experiments in the history of psychology. Milgram's exploration into the limits of obedience to authority captured the public imagination, not least because of his chilling conclusion: that the majority of us could become torturers with just a few words of encouragement from a single authority figure. Milgram fashioned a powerful tale of saints and sinners, a morality play cloaked in the language of science that captured a particular view of humankind at a specific time and place in history. But in reconstructing Eichmann in his lab and ignoring evidence that didn't fit his narrative, Milgram deprived us of a richer, more hopeful story. The archives offer a portrait of people not as one-dimensional followers of orders, but as active searchers-for-meaning who make sometimes clumsy, sometimes clever and largely successful attempts to resist the cruel demands of an unyielding and enigmatic authority figure. Humans are built to obey? Don't buy it