Forty years after psychologist Stanley Milgram of the Yale University had made a study which helped him conclude that people obey authoritarian figures beyond their ethic and moral standards, a researcher did a similar experiment. 

During the experiment conducted by Milgram in the early 1980s, the people were asked to administer very painful or even lethal shocks to other people which were faking to be study subjects. They could deliver shocks of up to 450 volts, which translated into permanent damage to the study subjects. 

In fact, the research subjects were never administered with any shock, but the researchers could still measure how they had felt about harming other people. The study revealed that, on average, 60% of the time, the participants complied and administered the full 450 volts shock, even though they expressed hesitation or tried to subtly elude the task. 

The study triggered some severe reactions, as a group of ethic experts stated that the study had gone too far because the scientists mislead the participants about the fact that they were really injuring the subjects. Dr. Michael Grodin, professor of bioethics, human rights, philosophy and psychiatry at the Boston University, stated that the research did not reach the “ethical research standards.” 

The new research was conducted by Jerry Burger, a professor of psychology at Santa Clara University and reached fairly similar conclusions with the one of Milgram’s. Burger said that his research met ethical criteria because the researchers told the participants that the maximum output of the shock is 150 volts. 

Milgram’s study is maybe the most well-known in the history of experimental psychology. His experiment was acclaimed when published, but has also been criticized and made the scientific world to develop a series of ethical principles that every research should follow up.