behavioral study of obedience

the experimental analysis, especially as carried out by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s, of individuals’ willingness to obey the orders of an authority. In Milgram’s experiment, each participant played the role of a teacher who was instructed to deliver painful electric shocks to other “participants” for each failure to answer a question correctly. The latter were in fact confederates who did not actually receive shocks for their many deliberate errors. Milgram found that a substantial number of participants (65%) were completely obedient, delivering what they believed were shocks of increasing intensity despite the protestations and apparent suffering of the victims. See also agentic state; destructive obedience.

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Psychology term of the day

February 17th 2025

transdermal patch

an adhesive application that is designed to release a drug at a steady rate via absorption through the skin into the bloodstream. Transdermal patches are used, for example, to administer nicotine in progressively smaller doses to people who are trying to give up smoking.