What was the aim of Milgram's 1963 study?

The aim of Milgram's 1963 study was to see how far people would obey orders that caused harm to another individual. This was rooted in Milgram's interest in the willingness of individuals to follow authority figures, even when such obedience conflicted with their personal conscience. The study was conducted in the context of understanding the behavior of individuals during events such as the Holocaust, where individuals acted against their moral beliefs under authoritarian pressure.

In this groundbreaking experiment, participants were instructed to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to a learner (who was actually an actor and not harmed) when they answered questions incorrectly. The results revealed that a significant number of participants were willing to administer what they believed to be life-threatening shocks when prompted by an authoritative figure, highlighting the extent of human obedience to authority, even at the cost of another's wellbeing. This finding had profound implications in psychology, ethics, and sociology, illustrating that situational factors and authority can heavily influence individual behavior.