Stanley Milgram's 1963 studies on obedience provided important and shocking insights into the power of authority. The study set out to find out how obedient people really are. Debate and controversy have surrounded the study since the results were first published. The predictions made by the psychologists before the experiment turned out to be dramatically inaccurate. The experiment led volunteers to believe that they were administering increasingly painful and dangerous electric shocks to another volunteer for the purposes of a memory study. The memory study was a ruse, the real focus was on the behavior of participants inflicting pain on another person. Participants often acted against their own moral judgments and obeyed authority, even when the “victim” begged to stop. The study demonstrated the power of authority arising from the situation. This essay will examine his studies and some of his conclusions published in the book Obedience to Authority (1974) and compare them with the results of other works. He will discuss and evaluate the aims, experimental methods, results, ethics and ecological validity of his work. The study aimed to test the "Germans are different" hypothesis, according to which the acts of genocide carried out by ordinary Germans during World War II were the result of a national character flaw; that German culture led its citizens to be more obedient and therefore more prone to brutality under the guise of “I was just following orders”. The experiment sought to create an environment in which authority conflicted with morality. Original predictions estimated that only about 1% of participants would comply completely, Milgram found levels around 65%. He then conducted 17 variations, each changing small aspects... half the sheet... Ethics and Conduct hymn. R 2008 Key Studies in Psychology, Fifth Edition UK: Hodder EducationGross. R 2010 Psychology: The science of mind and behavior Sixth edition UK: Hodder EducationJung. CG 1958 (English ed) The Undiscovered Self p5 UK: 2002 RoutledgeMilgram. S 1974. Obedience to authority. UK: Tavistock Publications: 2010 Pinter & MartinOrne, MT 1962 On the social psychology of the psychological experiment: with particular reference to demand characteristics and their implications. Accessed 02/14/2011http://www.psych.upenn.edu/history/orne/orne1962amerpsychol776783.htmlOrne, MT, & Holland, CH 1968 On the ecological validity of laboratory deception. Accessed 02/14/2011http://www.psych.upenn.edu/history/orne/orneholland1968ijp282293.htmlZimbardo. P 2007 The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Become Bad. United Kingdom: Knight