What is a significant ethical concern regarding Milgram's study?

The significant ethical concern regarding Milgram's study revolves around the high levels of stress that participants experienced during the procedure. Milgram's experiment aimed to investigate obedience to authority by asking participants to administer electric shocks to another person, who was actually an actor and not receiving real shocks. Throughout the experiment, many participants exhibited signs of extreme anxiety, stress, and emotional discomfort as they believed they were inflicting pain on another individual. This raises ethical issues related to the well-being and psychological safety of participants, as the potential for harm due to stress and emotional strain was significant.

While informed consent is an important ethical principle, Milgram did not fully disclose the true nature of the study to participants beforehand, which would have allowed them to understand the potential emotional impact. Although participants were told they could withdraw at any time, the pressure to continue from the experimenter made it difficult for many to actually do so, challenging the ethics of voluntary participation. The compensation offered does not mitigate the emotional distress experienced; therefore, the stress factor remains a primary ethical concern in the context of the study.