The Obedience Experiments

?Miller thoroughly examines the controversies inspired by the late Stanley Milgrim's obedience experiments. He begins with a systematic review of the Milgram series, and some extensitons and replications of these experiments. The most basic and familiar finding is that ordinary people will attempt to administer severe electrial shocks to others if so instructed by an authority figure perceived to be legitimate. Miller next reviews challenges and defenses of the ethics of such deceptive and hupothetically traumatizing experiments. he then considers critiques of Milgrim's methodology, especially in terms of its external validity. Finally the book addresses the controversial claim that these experiments help explain the Nazi Holocaust, and that they have disturbing implications for the understanding of human nature....The significance of the controversies examined, renders this work an important addition to social science collections and a companion volume to Milgram's own Obedience to Authority. Upper-division undergraduates and above.?-Choice