What does the Milgram experiment tell us about human nature?

 

I can remember feeling shocked when I first heard about the Milgram experiment. Some psychology students told me about the experiment about 60 years ago, while I was at university.

At that time, the findings of the experiment caused me to question my view of human nature. I was brought up to hold the view that it is natural for humans to be kind and humane. That view is consistent with the derivation of the words, “kind” and “humane”. It is also the view I hold now. The findings of the Milgram experiment seemed to suggest, however, that a less positive view of human nature might be more accurate.

In this post I will summarize the Milgram experiment briefly before explaining why I have changed my mind about what it tells us about human nature.

The experiment was conducted by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University. His aim was to explore whether individuals would obey instructions to harm another person when an authority figure told them to do so. The first results of the experiment were published in 1963.

Participants in the experiment were led to believe that they were assisting in a learning experiment in which they were “teachers” who had to administer electric shocks to a “learner” who made mistakes. The electric “shocks” were fakes. The “learners” were actors. They made audible protests in response to the fake shocks. As the voltage increased, the “learners” protested more.

The main finding of the experiments was that a very high proportion of subjects fully obeyed the instructions – 65% were willing to apply the highest shock level. The experiment was replicated several times with similar outcomes being obtained.

When I first heard about the study, the message I took from it was that most humans are horrible. People claim to have regard for the well-being of others, but when it comes to the crunch, most people lack sufficient empathy and/or moral fortitude to refuse to inflict pain on others. The worst part of it was that I wasn’t confident that I would have been one of the minority who refused to apply the highest shock level.

However, when I recently read an article about the study I modified my view of the participants. They didn’t lack empathy for the victims. It was obvious from their behaviour, including symptoms of stress, that they were uncomfortable following the instruction to inflict pain. Every participant paused the experiment at least once to question whether they should continue. In interviews following the sessions, participants frequently described feeling tormented by what they believed they were doing.

Participants only continued because the instructor insisted that they do so. The instructor began by asking the participants politely to “please continue”. If they continued to object, they were told: “The experiment requires you to continue”. If they still objected, they were told three times that they “must continue”.

Milgram’s subsequent experiments showed that obedience was affected by a range of factors e.g. the uniform of the instructor, the location of the experiment, and the presence of social support. In one experiment, two confederates in the room refused to administer high levels of shocks. In that context, only 10% of participants were willing to administer the highest level of shock.

On the basis of his findings, Milgram suggested that the obedient participants were in an “agentic state” where they had allowed others to direct their actions and then passed off responsibility for the consequences to the person giving the orders.

Alexander Haslam and Stephen Reicher have suggested another factor that may explain the behavior of the obedient participants. Rather than simply caving in to orders, they may have believed that they were contributing to a worthy scientific cause.

My conclusion

I am no longer surprised that 65% of participants in the Milgram study ended up doing what the instructor told them to do. They had good reasons to respect the authority of the instructor. They believed they were taking part in a scientific experiment being conducted at a reputable university.

The outcome of the experiment reflected excessive respect for authority rather than a lack of empathy with other humans.

The main point I take away from the findings is that people need to recognize that if they want to behave honorably towards others, they may sometimes need to disregard instructions from authority figures.

The findings of the experiment do not provide a reason to question the view that empathy for others is a characteristic of human nature which is suppressed only under extraordinary circumstances.  

Source: https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2025/09/what-does-milgram-experiment-tell-us.html