Volunteers are invited to a scientific laboratory under the pretence of participating in a study about the effects of punishment on learning. They are instructed by an experimenter to administer an electric shock of increasing intensity every time a 'learner', strapped to an electric conductor, makes a mistake. How many, if any, would go right up the scale to 450 Volts? The implications of Stanley Milgram's extraordinary findings (up to 65 per cent of subjects administered the full shock) are devastating. From the Holocaust to Vietnam and Iraq, "Obedience to Authority" goes some way towards explaining how ordinary people can commit the most horrific of crimes if placed under the influence of a malevolent authority. This title is presented with a new foreword by Jerome Bruner.

In the 1960s Stanley Milgram carried out a series of experiments in which human subjects were given progressively more painful electro-shocks in a careful calibrated series to determine to what extent people will obey orders even when they knew them to be painful and immoral-to determine how people will obey authority regardless of consequences. These experiments came under heavy criticism at the time but have ultimately been vindicated by the scientific community. This book is Milgram′s vivid and persuasive explanation of his methods.

Stanley Milgram revolutionized our understanding of human nature with his classic research on obedience to authority - but the obedience experiments form just a small part of an extraordinary wealth of ground-breaking research that made him one of the most important social psychologists of our times. By the time the first edition of The Individual in a Social World appeared in 1977, Milgram had moved beyond obedience to other innovative research, such as the psychology of city life, the small world phenomenon (also known as 'six degrees of separation'), mental maps of cities, the lost-letter technique, the familiar stranger, as well as a large-scale experiment on media influence, which is still unique to the present day. In 1992, a second, posthumous edition appeared containing additional articles which Milgram had written after the first edition. This third, expanded edition of The Individual in a Social World combines articles that appeared in both of the earlier editions as well as previously uncollected material. Among the latter is, for example, an article in which Milgram provides a perspective on the Jonestown massacre and then uses it as a stepping stone for a ringing affirmation of the power of situational determinants of behavior. Another article, 'The Social Meaning of Fanaticism,' is almost uncanny in its relevance to our times, despite the fact that it was written several decades ago, as is his take on the potential impact of the Internet in 'Network Love'. Stanley Milgram possessed a relentless curiosity about the hidden workings of our social world, which he tried to make visible through his experiments and think pieces brought together in this unique, revealing and engaging book - a must-read for anyone interested in social psychology.

"The classic account of the human tendency to follow orders, no matter who they hurt or what their consequences." - Washington Post Book World In the 1960s, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram famously carried out a series of experiments that forever changed our perceptions of morality and free will. The subjects-or "teachers"-were instructed to administer electroshocks to a human "learner," with the shocks becoming progressively more powerful and painful. Controversial but now strongly vindicated by the scientific community, these experiments attempted to determine to what extent people will obey orders from authority figures regardless of consequences. "Milgram's experiments on obedience have made us more aware of the dangers of uncritically accepting authority," wrote Peter Singer in the New York Times Book Review. Obedience to Authority is Milgram's fascinating and troubling chronicle of his classic study and a vivid and persuasive explanation of his conclusions. In times of crisis, the great works of philosophy help us make sense of the world. The Harper Perennial Resistance Library is a special five-book series highlighting short classic works of independent thought that illuminate the nature of truth, humanity's dangerous attraction to authoritarianism, the influence of media and mass communication, and the philosophy of resistance-all critical in understanding today's politically charged world.