Stanley Milgram

Stanley Milgram (August 15, 1933 – December 20, 1984) was an American social psychologist most notable for his controversial study known as the Milgram Experiment. The study was conducted in the 1960s during Milgram's professorship at Yale. Milgram was influenced by the events of the Holocaust to carry out an experiment that would prove the relationship between obedience and authority.
In this experiment, 37 out of 40 participants administered the full range of shocks up to 450 volts, the highest obedience rate Milgram found in his whole series. In this variation, the actual subject did not pull the shock lever; instead he only conveyed information to the peer (a confederate) who pulled the lever. Thus, according to Milgram, the subject shifts responsibility to another person and does not blame himself for what happens. This resembles real-life incidents in which people see themselves as merely cogs in a machine, just "doing their job," allowing them to avoid responsibility for the consequences of their actions. The shocks themselves were fake, the participant who took the place as the 'learner' in the experiment was in fact a paid actor who would simulate the effects of the shock depending on the voltage. Milgram became very notorious for this tactic, and his experiment was soon classed as highly unethical as it caused stress to the participants in the study. The study soon became one of the most talked about psychological experiments in recent history, invading headlines across the world, Milgram finding himself in the centre of public attention. There was a huge divide in the psychological community as many believe that his deception was necessary in proving fault with the human condition and helping to explain the actions of the Nazis in the Holocaust, which was the main reasoning behind the creation of the study.