Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

industrial-organizational (I/O) 
psychology 
The branch of psychology 
focusing on work- and job-related 
issues, including worker motivation, 
satisfaction, safety, and productivity.
obedience 
A change in behavior in 
response to the commands of others.
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596 Chapter 
17 
Social Psychology
condition, demanded to be released, screaming, “Let me out of here! Let me out of 
here! My heart’s bothering me. Let me out of here!” Despite the learner’s pleas, most 
participants continued to administer the shocks. 
Why did so many individuals comply with the experimenter’s demands? The 
participants, who were extensively interviewed after the experiment, said they obeyed 
primarily because they believed that the experimenter would be responsible for any 
potential ill effects that befell the learner. The participants accepted the experimenter’s 
orders, then, because they thought that they personally could not be held accountable 
for their actions—they could always blame the experimenter (Blass, 1996, 2004). 
Although most participants in the Milgram experiment said later they felt the 
knowledge gained from the study outweighed the discomfort they may have felt, 
the experiment has been criticized for creating an extremely trying set of circum-
stances for the participants and thereby raised serious ethical concerns. Undoubtedly, 
the same experiment could not be conducted today because of ethical considerations. 
Other critics have suggested that Milgram’s methods were ineffective in creating 
a situation that actually mirrored real-world obedience. For example, how often are 
people placed in a situation in which someone orders them to continue hurting a 
victim, while the victim’s protests are ignored (Blass, 2000, 2004)? 
Despite these concerns, Milgram’s research remains the strongest laboratory 
demonstration of obedience. And partial replications of Milgram’s work, conducted 
in an ethically defensible way, fi nd similar results, which adds credence to the orig-
inal work (Blass, 2009; Burger, 2009). 
Furthermore, we need only consider actual instances of obedience to authority 
to witness some frightening real-life parallels. For instance, after World War II, the 
major defense that Nazi offi cers gave to excuse their participation in atrocities during 
the war was that they were “only following orders.” Milgram’s experiment, which 
was motivated in part by his desire to explain the behavior of everyday Germans 
during World War II, forces us to ask ourselves this question: Would we be able to 
withstand the intense power of authority?