Alive and well after all these years

Stanley Milgram's obedience studies remain an important part of the discipline. Five decades after they were conducted, the key question persists - Why were so many ordinary citizens willing to deliver what they must have perceived to be excruciating if not lethal electric shocks to another individual? Recent methodological developments are helping investigators address this question. In addition, half a century of social psychological research identifies several aspects of the situation Milgram created that made it difficult for his participants to do anything but follow the experimenter's instructions.