All language subtitles for Experimenter.2015.1080P.Bluray.X264-[Yts.Ag]-ENG

Hello. I'm Mr. Williams.
Thank you for coming.

Please? And you are?

- Fred Miller.
- You must be?

- Wallace. James Wallace.
- Great. Please.

Have a seat.

Now before we do anything else,
allow me to pay you.

Please check that both names
are spelled correctly.

You understand this is yours
simply for coming to the lab.

From now on, no matter what happens,
the money is yours.

I'll have to have you sign a receipt.

There you go.

Now, psychologists have developed
several theories on how humans learn.

For example, it might help to reward
a person. Sometimes it helps to punish them.

We do know that punishment...
thank you very much.

...is a powerful incentive
towards learning.

For example,
when a parent spanks a child.

However, in fact, we actually know
very little about the effect

of punishment on learning because almost
no scientific studies have been done of it

on human beings.

Now, one of you will play
the role of "learner",

who will receive a mild punishment if he
answers incorrectly to a series of questions.

That punishment will be
administered by a "teacher".

What kind of punishment
are we talking about?

Well, first, let's determine
which of you will be "learner"

and which will be "teacher."

If you'll just choose one.

Good.

Teacher.

- I guess I'm the learner?
- Good.

This is the machine
for generating electric shocks.

Go ahead.

Now, let's set up the learner
to receive some punishment.

If you'll just follow me
into the next room.

- Is it okay if I leave my hat here?
- Yes, that's fine.

Now you might wanna remove the jacket.

Go ahead and have a seat.

Now, when you push one
of these four buttons,

this box will signal a light
in the other room, telling the teacher

- how you're responding to the questions.
- What kind of questions?

Multiple choice: Word pairs.

"Strong arm", "black curtain",
and so forth.

Now, we want you to memorize them.

The teacher will first read them
as word pairs, "strong arm", for example,

and then he'll read only
the first word, "strong",

followed by a series of word choices.
"Back, arm, branch, and push".

Now your job is to remember which
of those words was originally paired

- with the first word, "strong".
- Arm.

Right. You'd indicate that by pushing
one of these buttons here.

If you had thought it was
the first word I had read, "back",

you'd push this first button here.

If you thought it was the second word,
"arm", you'd push the second button,

so on and so forth with third
and fourth word choices.

Now, if you get the answer incorrect,
you will receive an electric shock.

Would you please roll up
your right arm sleeve, please?

And would you just help me strap him in
to limit any excess movement?

- How far do you think he'll go?
- Too soon to tell.

This is connected to the shock
generator in the next room.

- Electrode paste.
- And electrode paste,

to eliminate any excess burns
or blisters.

You know, I should say
that a couple of years ago,

in the West Haven VA Hospital
they determined

that I had a slight heart condition.

Nothing serious, but how dangerous
are these shocks?

Well, although the shocks
may be extremely painful,

they cause no permanent tissue damage.

Okay.

Well, we'll be communicating
from the next room.

The lab coat, I decided to make it Grey.

White would seem too medical.

- Okay.
- Thank you.

Now, if he gets the answer incorrect,

you administer the shock by flipping
one of these switches here.

You see? Each switch
has a little red light above it.

Now, to give you, the teacher,

an idea of the amount of shock
the learner will be receiving,

we think it's only fair you receive
a sample shock yourself. Is that all right?

Okay, just roll up your sleeve.

Life can only be understood backwards
but it must be lived forwards.

Good. Now, I'll ask you
to close your eyes...

and just estimate for me the amount
of volts you think you're receiving.

Okay, close.

This part, this part's where
the experiment really begins.

Now, just use this scale here
to tell me the amount of volts

you think you received
in the sample shock.

195?

No, actually, that's incorrect.
It was 45 volts.

All right.

Okay, learner... I'm going
to read you the words,

and then I'm gonna repeat the first word
and you're going to tell me

the pair for that word. Okay?

He doesn't have a microphone
but he can hear you.

Keep it moving, understand? Remember,
each time he gives a wrong answer,

you move up one switch
on the shock generator.

It is important that you follow
the procedure exactly.

Okay, here we go.

"Blue girl. Nice day.

Fat neck. Green ink.

Rich boy. Fast bird.

Blunt arrow. Soft hair.

Cool cave. Gold paint."

In the first word.

"Blue:

Boy, girl, grass, bat."

Correct.

"Soft rug..."

He finds his way into it.

With increasing confidence
he finds a rhythm, a groove.

- That is incorrect.
- Until...

90 volts.

- Here we go.
- "Gold:

Dollar, necklace, moon, paint."

Incorrect.

120 volts, gold paint.

"Hard: Stone, head, bread, work."

Incorrect.

135 volts.

Okay.

"Wet: Night, grass, duck, cloth."

Incorrect. 150 volts, wet duck.

It really hurts.

How do you know when a change,
a true and lasting change,

- is about to overtake your life?
- "...grass, man, girl..."

- Eighth floor, please.
- The same.

Are we going to the same party?

Probably. You know Doris Eissenman?

Saul Harwood's invited me.

I've never heard of him.

Shall we continue talking, or wait till
we're properly introduced?

- You're a dancer?
- Oh, well, I studied, here and in Paris.

I work in an office now.

- What about you?
- I'm at Yale.

Limited dance skills, although
I did spend some time in Paris.

- What are you studying at Yale?
- I teach, actually. Social Relations.

Did you just give that guy there
your phone number?

So if I wanted your number
I can get it from him?

Social Relations.

- What does that mean?
- It's a combination.

Sociology, anthropology, psychology.

You know, basically covers
everything from...

the way people talk in elevators to the study
of role-playing, conformity, authority.

"Soft: Rug, pillow,

hair, grass.

Incorrect. A hundred and...

sixty-five volts, strong shock.

Let me out of here!
I told you, I have a heart condition.

I will not be part
of the experiment anymore!

- He says he's not gonna go on.
- Please continue, teacher.

He says he doesn't want to go on.

Well, whether the learner
likes it or not,

he must go on until he's learned
all the pairs correctly.

Please continue, teacher.

Calm down, concentrate.

"Sad: Face, music,

clown, girl."

Incorrect. 180 volts.

- Dammit! Let me out, let me out!
- He went all the way. Most of them do.

"Sharp.

Axe, needle, stick, blade."

No response from the learner
must be interpreted as a wrong answer.

Still laughing,

trying to hide face with hand.

Something's happening
to that man in there.

Can you please go check
that everything's okay?

Not once we've started.
Please continue, teacher.

- So you accept all responsibility?
- The responsibility's mine, correct.

Continue, please.

"Wet: Night, grass, dark, cloth."

Clenching fist, pushing it onto table.

- How are you holding up, Alan?
- "Dollar: Necklace,

moon, paint." 375 volts.

Dangerous, severe shock.

Let me out of here, let me out.
Get me out of here.

You can't hold me in here. Get me out.

- What is this?
- I just liked the picture. The colors...

- Don't you?
- Yeah.

Take it. It's yours.

Why don't you mail it to me?

Or we could leave it here
and you can move in?

That'd be easier, wouldn't it?

"Wet: Night, grass, duck,

cloth."

"Wet duck."

435 volts.

Okay.

"Brave: Woman, soldier,

dog, horse."

"Brave woman."

450 volts.

Okay, what now?
I'm at the end at 450 volts.

Continue, please. The last switch again.

Yeah, but... but he
could be dead in there.

The experiment requires
that you continue.

- Go on, please.
- And his health doesn't mean anything?

Whether the learner likes it or not,
we must continue.

I'm sorry, look,
I don't mean to be rude, sir,

but I think you should
go look in on him. I mean,

all you have to do is look in on him.
Look into that door.

'Cause I'm not getting any noise,
I'm not getting no sound here.

We must continue.

Go on, please, the next word is "white".

"White: Cloud,

horse, rock, house."

White horse. 450 volts again.

"Fair.

Price, rule, skin, sky."

Wrong. 450 again.

All right, thank you.
We are done with the experiment.

Okay.

I'm just going to speak with the learner.
I think he might be a little upset.

In the meantime, my assistant
would like to ask you a few questions,

- if you don't mind?
- Yeah, surely.

Dr. Milgram?

How do you do?

First I'd like... No, thank you.

- I'd like to ask you some questions.
- Yes, surely.

Why did you give him, the man in
the other room, the learner, the shocks?

Well, as you could see,
I wanted to stop 'cause...

each time you gave him a shock
the guy hollered.

Did it sound as if he was in pain?

Yeah.

Did he say he wanted you
to stop the experiment?

Yes.

Did he have a right
to stop the experiment?

I don't know.

Why didn't you stop, at that point,
when he asked you to stop?

Why didn't I stop? Well, 'cause...

'Cause he told me to continue.

Why did you listen to that man
and not the man in pain?

Well, 'cause... 'cause I thought
the experiment depended on me.

- And nobody told me to stop.
- He asked you to stop.

That... that's true, but he's the...

you know, the subject, shall we say?

Who was the...

Who bore the responsibility for the fact
that this man was being shocked?

I don't know.

Could you fill out items six through 18 on
the questionnaire in front of you, please?

Here's a pen.

I get a little skittish.

Nervous.

As I explained to
Mr. Wallace in the other room,

this shock generator's actually used for
small animals for laboratory experiments.

Mice, rats, and so forth.

The visual designation
is actually misleading.

This shock generator's actually been
adjusted so that the shocks were just...

slightly stronger than the shock
you experienced.

Are you all right?

Yeah, I'm fine, you know.

No hard feelings. I probably
would've done the same thing myself.

Ciao.

Each subject has a reconciliation
with the learner.

We ask the subject to maintain a secrecy
so that future recruits aren't tipped off.

Down the line we get more candid.

The first thing I wanna tell you is the man
in the other room wasn't being shocked.

The only real shock was the one
that you felt early on.

We're really interested
in studying your reaction

to having to inflict pain
on someone you don't know.

The experiment's about obeying orders.

The man in the other room
works with us as a team.

Jim, you can come out now.

He wasn't really being shocked,
he's perfectly fine.

We weren't trying to fool you, we're just
interested in studying your reactions.

Man, you dog.

I... I was worried sick.
I thought I was...

You're a good fella.
No hard feelings, no hard feelings.

But you thought
you were really shocking him.

When he wasn't making noise anymore,
that's when I was worried.

- I didn't wanna go on with it.
- But you did go on.

Yeah, but I did not want to. You saw
how it was, how I was fighting it.

Well... you understand why
we had to do it this way.

We wanted to get true reactions
from people, you see.

Well, you'll receive a copy of the report
when the project's over.

Until then, we ask you
not to say anything.

You may end up talking to someone
who is a potential participant.

How do you feel...

about having come down here
and done this, now that you know?

I mean...

Now that I know the truth, I don't mind.

Well, thank you very much
for coming down.

We certainly do appreciate you
giving us your time.

- Yeah, yeah.
- Alan here will help you out.

We think you'll find the report
very interesting.

Thanks. Yeah, thank you.

I still get nervous. You're cool as ice.

Maybe all those years of teaching
high school gives you sort of a...

- Poker face?
- Discipline, I was thinking.

You're like a gravedigger.

I think you mean undertaker.

The domino effect starts to kick in,

in the teacher's mind,
once he assumes the role.

Get some women in here.
Get my wife in this seat, she...

we've got nine kids, the first squawk
she'd stop the whole shebang.

- Nine kids. Are you sure about that?
- Oh, yeah.

I have enough saved up to give 'em each
a pair of socks if the electricity gets me.

You're a brave man, Jim. All right,
next subject's due. I should get going.

Some enchanted evening

You will meet a stranger

I was born in the Bronx, 1933.

My father's from Hungary,
my mother Romania, Jewish immigrants.

It was a matter of chance
they arrived in the US as children

and managed to raise a family
in New York instead of being swept up

into the extermination camps
and murdered by the Nazis,

like millions of others like them
in Eastern Europe.

That's really what's behind
the obedience experiments.

The inkling I was chasing,

the thing that troubled me.

How do civilized human beings
participate in destructive, inhumane acts?

How was genocide implemented
so systematically, so efficiently?

And how did the perpetrators of these
murders live with themselves?

My daughter, Michele,

a precocious child who at this point
in the story hasn't yet been born,

used to tell the kids at school:
"My dad's a psychologist,

but not the kind who talks
to people lying down.

He's an experimental psychologist.

He does experiments."

First let's determine which of you will be
"learner" and which will be "teacher."

"Teacher."

They both say that.
And no one's caught on?

- Not a soul.
- Not the corporate manager,

the banker, the plumber,
the Good Humor man.

The Good Humor man was actually vicious.

Crude mesomorph of obviously
limited intelligence.

The script has kind of momentum.
It carries them along.

- Men only?
- Every hour.

It's getting to be a blur, really.

So you lead them both, both
the teacher and the learner, into...

the... electric chair?

Well, we don't call it that, but, yes,

if you'll follow me
into the next room, please?

Here's my home.

I think I'd go nuts
in this little room all day.

Well, they keep me busy.

- Actually, I have a heart condition.
- Really?

It does give you authenticity,
I think, in the part.

But I think I'm a better actor
than I am accountant.

It's nearly time for the next one.

Is somebody in there?

Maybe Alan.

- Shall we join him?
- Sure.

To give you, the teacher, an idea of how
much shock the learner will be receiving,

we think it's only fair you receive
a sample shock yourself. Is that all right?

- Fair enough.
- Give me your right arm.

This is the only real shock, right?

Have you done it?

Been shocked like that, literally?

- Yeah.
- It's not pleasant.

Now if you'll just use the scale here
to estimate for me the amount of volts

you think you've received
in the sample shock.

- I don't know. You tell me.
- That was only 45 volts.

So go ahead and begin the test.

He doesn't have a microphone
but he can hear you.

Just speak into the microphone.
The rooms are partially soundproof.

Are you ready, learner?

Continues with robotic impassivity,

oblivious to experimenter.

Seems to derive no pleasure
from the act itself.

Incorrect.

The correct answer is box.

Curt and officious
when saying "Correct".

75 volts.

Let me out of here!

Each time he administrates a shock,

lips drawn back, bares his teeth.

"Sweet: Candy, girl, taste, pickle."

Wrong. "Sweet taste." 120 volts.

Let me out of here!

Looks sadly at the experimenter
and continues reading word pairs.

Wrong. "True story".

135 volts.

"Slow, walk..."

Afterwards, if a learner
who says he agreed to it

and therefore must accept
responsibility.

Wrong. "Slow music." 150 volts.

Let me out of here!
I can't stand the pain.

The man, he seems to be getting hurt.

There's no permanent tissue damage.

Yes, but I know what shocks do to you.
I'm an electrical engineer,

and I have had shocks.

You get real shook up by them,

especially if you know
the next one is coming.

I'm sorry.

It's absolutely essential
that you do continue.

Well, I won't!

Not with the man screaming to get out.

You have no other choice.

Why don't I have a choice?

I came here on my own free will.

I thought I could help
in a research project.

But if I have to hurt somebody,

if I was in his place,

no, I can't continue.

I've probably gone too far already.
I'm very sorry.

I could've wept.

I mean he looked like
he wanted to slug me.

Out of gratitude, you do understand,
I mean wept. Because...

all day we've been getting
nothing but "wrong...

You do realize I have to sit
and listen to you scream all day.

Well, so do I.

- He was what, Danish?
- Dutch, actually.

Right, but it wasn't his nationality
that caused him to stop,

it was the fact he worked
with electricity.

They all seem to wanna impress you...

for some reason.

But why?

Why do so many, the vast majority,

push all the way through
to the final switch?

Why is the Dutchman's defiance
the anomaly instead of the norm?

All the psychiatrists
and psychologists I consulted

were convinced that we'd have trouble
finding a single person

that'd go all the way
through to the end.

I'd have been better off consulting
the guy from Pepe's Pizza.

- Oh, you mean Pepe?
- I think his name is Carmine.

Well, you get my point. The butcher,
the baker, the candlestick maker.

I'd like to try it...

the test shock.

I just wanna... know what it feels like.

Sasha.

I don't even think about that, and...

I've been in there supposedly
getting zapped to the maximum.

This really isn't necessary.

Well, yeah, but it's not harmful either.
I just wanna understand it better.

Okay.

Other arm.

- Thank you.
- You're welcome.

I designed a series
of variations, 25 in all,

and continued the experiments
over the next two semesters.

We adjust the script so that the learner
bangs on the wall, but says nothing.

We asked the teacher to physically press
the learner's hand on a copper plate,

- forcing him to receive the shock.
- House.

Wrong. 135 volts.

We moved the experiment
into a shabby office in Bridgeport,

to deduct the potential intimidation factor
of Ivy League prestige.

And, back at Yale, we include women.

What did you just do?

He said: "Ow."

Did you turn off the machine?

I... I thought
that if it seemed like I...

you know, turn...

- Okay. "Short..."
- The machine?

Please continue, teacher.

Okay, "Short: Sentence, movie,

time, skirt."

I'm sorry, that's wrong.
It's "short time".

In nearly every case,
the essential results are the same.

They hesitate, sigh, tremble and groan,

but they advance to the last switch,
450 volts, "Danger Severe Shock XXX",

because they're politely told to.

The results are terrifying
and depressing.

They suggest that the kind of character
produced in American society

can't be counted on to insulate
its citizens from brutality

and inhumane treatment in response
to a malevolent authority.

Milgram?

Milgram is Hebrew for pomegranate.
Is that what you mean?

- It's one of the seven fruits of the Bible.
- You're Jewish, same as me.

You seem upset. Am I upsetting you?

I have office hours.
You can make an appointment. Yeah?

You don't like surprises.

You know, I've been thinking
about the experiment a lot.

It really rattled my wife
about what it said about me.

If she was me, she liked to think
she wouldn't have pulled the switch.

- But you know what?
- What?

You never know. That's the thing,
how can you know. You can't, right?

No, you can't.
Look, if it's any consolation,

a great many participants were prone
to nervous laughter, but my wife actually

is waiting for me at home
for dinner, so...

- Are you inviting me?
- No.

Make an appointment.

With leftover grant money we film
the last two days of the experiment,

May 26 and 27th, 1962.

Four days later, Adolf Eichmann
is executed in Jerusalem.

Eichmann... architect of the Holocaust,

responsible for the deportation
and murder of millions of Jews,

escaped to Argentina after World War II.

He was living with his family
under the name Ricardo Klement,

an employee of Mercedes-Benz,

when Israeli Mossad agents captured him
in 1960 and brought him to trial.

...completed the translations,

I beg to submit a translation
into the German of our number, 887.

Eichmann didn't deny his crimes,

showed no trace of guilt or remorse.

Said he was merely a transmitter.

"I never did anything great or small
without express instructions

from my superiors."

The cradle rocks above an abyss
and common sense tells us

that our existence
is but a brief crack of light

between two eternities of darkness.

Let me out of here!
Hey, that really hurts!

I told you, I have a heart condition!

I will not be
in this experiment anymore!

Hey, let me out.
Let me outta here! Let me out!

Let me out of here.

I will no longer be here

Hey, Stanley, a nice day to wrap up
the new obedience experiment.

Yeah, yeah.

I should tell you about Asch.

Solomon E. Asch.

If you ever saw my thesis at Harvard,
and I worked for him,

diligently and miserably, at the Institute
for Advanced Study at Princeton.

- Asch did the things with the lines, right?
- About a dozen years ago.

The study you are taking part in today

involves the perception
of the lengths of lines.

As you can see,
there are a number of cards,

and on each card
there are several lines.

Your task is a very simple one.

You're to look at the line on the left

and determine which of the three lines
on the right is equal to it in length.

This is a recreation
from a film I made in the 70's.

Five of the six participants
are confederates.

The single true subject
in the white T-shirt

hears everyone else's answers
before announcing his decision.

- Two.
- Two.

- Two.
- Two.

Two.

Very good.
Let's move onto the next card.

- Same thing, gentlemen.
- Three.

Three.

- Three.
- Three.

After the first few rounds, members
of the group choose the wrong line.

- Two.
- Two.

The subject denies the evidence
of his own eyes

- and yields to group influence.
- Two.

Very good. Thank you.

In the language of social science,

the experiment was known as the effect
of group pressure upon the modification

and distortion of judgments.

- Great title.
- It made Asch famous.

Amongst social scientists.

It always bothered me
that the experiment was about lines.

I wanted to do something
more humanly significant.

He hears the bell.

- Stanley, it's so good to see you.
- So good to see you.

- Hi. Nice to meet you.
- This is Sasha.

Sasha, how are you?
So lovely to see you. Come in.

- Stanley Glad you made it.
- How are you?

Can I tell you what a miserable time
I had working for Asch?

Princeton, the bureaucracy,
the institutional arrogance.

Not permitted to use a scrap of paper

without it becoming an issue
to be settled behind closed doors.

A candy bar in the office
and I was reported via formal letter.

I assumed he'd introduce me
to the leading intellectuals of the day.

This did not happen.
I assumed that he'd acknowledge me

in the book I was researching for him,
a book on conformity.

He did not finish the book.

It was like drinking from a glass
with a false bottom.

I thought there'd be more.
I was thirsty.

Please call me Sholem,
I would prefer it.

There's no need to be so stuffy.

In an elevator? Really?

They met in an elevator.

Can someone please pacify the dog?

Here I am, still trying to impress him.

Human nature can be studied
but not escaped, especially your own.

Well, I was on my way into this party

and I could feel somebody walking
behind me as I went into the building.

And we both got onto the elevator,

and it turned out we were going
to the same floor.

And one of us said,
I don't remember which,

- "Are we going to the same party?"
- My fate was sealed.

He didn't leave my side the whole night.

And he drove me home,

and it turned out
we had a lot in common.

We were both from the Bronx,
my mother was born in Russia.

So my sister's friend, her parents
in Vienna had sent her and her brothers

to New York during the war.

But when I was over there visiting,
they had just reclaimed their factory,

and it was a coat factory,
and that's where I got this.

So, you're a well-traveled
American girl,

born in Switzerland,

who took dance lessons in Paris
and is wearing a Viennese coat?

Why haven't we met before?

Stanley, why do you feel compelled

to dwell on the negative aspects
of obedience?

Why must you focus
on its destructive potential?

Obedience isn't necessarily
an instrument of evil.

I think we can both agree,
looking at recent history,

the history that brought you
to this country, a history in which we see

abusive power assuming
unprecedented murderous dimensions.

Why does your experiment
give me a dirty feeling?

He didn't expect these results.

He tried to change the conditions
so that people would refuse to obey.

We met in a library. Oh, him, not him.

The whole time, I'm sorry,
this is startling,

out of 780 subjects,

not a single person got up,
went to the door

and looked in to see if the man
screaming was all right.

Not a single one.

Sasha goes back to school, Smith College,
for her degree in social work.

My first obedience paper
submitted almost two years ago

to the Journal of Abnormal
and Social Psychology

is finally published in October 1963,

just after I start a new job at Harvard,

Assistant Professor,
Department of Social Relations.

Am I impressed with myself
being at Harvard?

Well, I got my PhD here,
Harvard is the best place to be.

The subjects were seen to swear,
tremble, stutter,

bite their lips, dig
their fingernails into the flesh,

and these were characteristic
responses, not exceptions,

and yet, despite this behavior,

the majority complied.

Yes?

How do you justify the deception?

I like to think of it as illusion,
not deception.

Semantics, you may say,
but illusion, you know,

has a revelatory function, as in a play.

Illusion can set the stage
for revelation,

to reveal certain
difficult-to-get-at truths.

But still, when you go to see a play,
you pay for a ticket.

You know you're seeing a play.

These people didn't know it wasn't real.

You tricked them.

Hello, today
we'll be doing an experiment

about blind obedience
to malevolent authority.

I'd like for you to pretend
that this machine

is delivering painful shocks
to a person in the other room.

- How truthful do you think that would be?
- But if you think of it, really...

you were delivering shocks
to your subjects.

Psychological shocks.
And the anxieties...

- No.
- ...methodically, for one year.

If your facts were as solid
as your imagination,

you'd realize that this
is a false analogy.

As Kierkegaard says,

"Take away paradox from the thinker
and you have a professor."

An assistant professor.

For the moment, Dr. Milgram and myself
are only assistant professors, it's true.

The gentleman in the elevator now...

is a Candid star.
These folks who are entering,

the man with the white shirt,
the lady with the trench coat,

and, subsequently,
one other member of our staff,

will face the rear.

And you'll see...

how this man in the trench coat...

tries to maintain his individuality,

but, little by little...

he looks at his watch
but he's really making an excuse

for turning just a little bit
more to the wall."

Actually, it's true. There's an element
of illusion in almost all my work.

This man has apparently
been in groups before.

Candid Camera was a reference point,
I never denied that.

You can see that plainly enough
in the lost letter technique,

which I conceived of at Yale
and was refined at Harvard.

Leave a letter, a sealed, stamped letter
but unmailed, for someone else to find.

Leave it on a sidewalk,
inside a store, a phone booth.

Put it under the windshield wipers
of a parked car with a note saying,

"Found near car."

All letters are addressed
to the same post office box.

But they're evenly split between
four different intended recipients.

Friends of the Communist Party,
friends of the Nazi Party,

Medical Research Associates,
and Mr. Walter Carnap.

All fictitious.

The innocuous content of the letters,

if anyone's curious enough
to open and read,

was a simple message
from "Max" to "Walter"

proposing an upcoming meeting.

Carnap.

It's kind of an odd name.

Like the philosopher?

In two weeks, out of 100 "lost" letters
to each addressee,

72 were sent to the Medical
Research Associates,

plus 71% to Mr. Walter Carnap,

but a mere 25 to the Friends
of the Communists,

and the same number, 25, to the Nazis.

We can deduce from this

that the American public has an aversion
to Nazis and Communists.

Results that are reasonable

and even comforting,
though not startling.

But why not take it further?

Taketo Murata, another student,
drives to Charlotte

and Raleigh, North Carolina,
to lose a new batch of letters.

When the letters come back, the percentages,
once again confirm expected prejudices.

Pro-white letters get mailed
more often in white neighborhoods.

More pro-negro letters get mailed
from black neighborhoods.

A variation.
I hire a pilot with a Piper Cub

to fly low over Worcester, Massachusetts,
spilling lost letters.

They land in trees, ponds, on rooftops.

Not all my ideas are brilliant.

Well, it's not on the front page,
strangely enough.

I found it. Page Ten.

Okay.

"Yale experiment shows many distraught
over cruelty but did not stop."

It's odd to see one's name in the paper,
but maybe I can get used to it.

"Subjects have been studied under
24 different experimental conditions."

It wasn't a thousand, was it?

I talked to him for over half an hour
and I don't see a single direct quote.

"Dr. Milgram pointed out
that from 1933 to 1945,

millions of persons were systematically
slaughtered on command.

Gas chambers were built,
death camps were guarded,

corpses were produced
with the same efficiency

as the manufacture of appliances."

There's a quote.

Do you think anyone else
reads this paper?

President Kennedy has been shot.
He was shot in the motorcade in Dallas.

He was shot in the head.

It's Milgram. It's just another one
of his experiments.

- On the level?
- Yes.

Kelly, you've got that radio, yeah?
Turn it on.

...during his tour of the City
of Dallas, Texas.

A presidential aide, Mario Bryan,
said he had no information

on whether the President is alive..."

He's rigged a faked broadcast,
like Orson Welles.

I wonder what the experiment's
really about?

- This is real.
- ...the president is critical.

Texas Governor John Connally
also was shot

and has been taken to surgery
in Parkland Hospital...

I got it cheap, I got it cheap
from a grad student.

He gave me a deal when he realized
he couldn't take it with him to London.

It's making a funny noise.
Maybe you can have a look.

- Stanley, the dean...
- You love this kind of thing.

...lives right across the street.
We just applied for financial aid.

A Jaguar, right.
What's he going to think?

- What... who cares what he thinks?
- I didn't say that.

- Well...
- I didn't say that.

Yeah.

See you soon.

It was cheaper than you think but
I understand it creates the wrong impression.

- Do you?
- I do.

Or are you just doing an imitation of
someone who listens, who's reasonable?

Well, we're going to need two cars.

Is that the dean?

Well, maybe it'll impress
the Harvard tenure committee.

Who cares what they think?

- So you returned the car?
- I did.

It was sensible.

I don't know a single tenured professor
who drives a Jaguar.

I didn't like the color.

If you get turned down,
it won't be because of an automobile.

But it's got to sting, yeah?

The attacks, the criticisms,
the violent reactions.

That woman was going through a divorce,
it turns out.

I didn't take it personally.

I'm going through a divorce.

I don't spit at people.

I'm sorry to hear that.

Thank you.

It's true that I am, possibly, more than
commonly on edge, but how would you feel...

if you picked up a copy
of American Psychologist

and found yourself attacked
in an article called

"Some Thoughts on Ethics in Research:

a Response to Milgram's Behavioral
Study of Obedience"?

Psychiatrists...

many of you in this room, predicted
that only one person in a thousand

would deliver the shocks across the board,
an estimate that was off by a factor of 500.

So what happened in the lab...

was discovered, not planned.

But you expected, you knew you were
going to worry some people.

Stress, in fact, was a part of it.

- Well, every...
- Extreme stress.

Every experiment is a situation
where the end is unknown,

indeterminate,
something that might fail.

The indeterminacy is part
of the excitement.

Ethics. The undertow of ethics.

I wanted to ask...
I wanted to ask a question,

a series of questions about
the psychological function of obedience.

The conditions that shape it,
the defense mechanisms it entails.

The emotional forces
that keep a person obeying.

As someone with pretensions
as a moral educator,

let me suggest that science
must enhance our moral personhood,

not... not diminish it.

You forced people
to torture other people.

- No. No. No.
- To see if they...

No. That is alien to my view.

No one was forced, right?

The experimenter told the subject
to perform an action.

What happened between the command

and the outcome is the individual.

With conscience and a will,
who can either obey or disobey.

I don't see how you can seriously equate
victimization in a laboratory con

with the willful participation
in mass murder.

Victimization? Look...

When the experiments were complete...

all the subjects were sent
this questionnaire.

Here's some examples.

84% said they were glad
to have been in the experiment.

15% indicated neutral feelings.

1.3% indicated negative feelings.

1.3%.

Four-fifths thought more experiments
of this sort should be carried out,

and 74% said they had learned
something of personal importance

about themselves and about the conditions
that shape human action.

A year after the study,
a psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Errara,

was hired to meet with subjects who
might've suffered possible negative effects.

This is not another experiment.
There's no trick here.

- I can see why you may have your doubts.
- Yes.

This is a debriefing meeting.
We're here to assess the after-effects.

So...

tell us how you feel.

I'd like to know...
what the point is of it.

To learn something about human nature.

That was the aim.

Professor Milgram?

I hope that... I sincerely hope
that, basically,

you don't have the feeling that would rather
not have been a part of this experiment.

It's an interesting life experience.

I don't like hurting anyone and I can't
understand myself going all the way.

It left me feeling guilty.

- Weren't we supposed to have coffee?
- Yeah.

I told my husband.
I know I wasn't supposed to.

But I don't do everything I'm told.

He said he wouldn't have done
the shocks. He would have refused.

I wanted to cry, but I started to laugh.

I think I did both.

Well, I was quite frightened,
and I was quivering, and it's...

I actually tried to memorize
the word pairs myself

so that if they switched it around
I wouldn't have to get those shocks.

There's a tendency to think
that everything a person does

is due to the feelings
or ideas within the person.

You haven't had your coffee.
You want coffee?

- Yes.
- Cream? Sugar?

- I'll take two sugars.
- Both, please.

Yes, thank you.

But sometimes a person's
actions depend equally

on the situation you find yourself in,
and in this case,

the power of the situation
overwhelmed your personal power.

I'm an understanding person. Okay?

I'm an intelligent human being.

Speak the truth to me...

and I'll cooperate gladly,
even if it's a bitter truth,

but don't lie to me.

The purpose was to...

advance science, learn something.

Maybe you shouldn't do this kind
of experiment if you have to deceive.

Look, you can deceive other people
but don't deceive me.

We had half a dozen sessions with Errara
and invited subjects.

The meetings were sparsely attended,
full of confusion and complaints,

but we concluded that no one
showed signs of harm,

no one had been traumatized.

Stanley?

Tom Shannon.

Tom did the wiring
on the shock generator.

- At Yale. The shock box.
- Nice to meet you.

- This is Sasha.
- This is Michele.

Hey, I hated hearing about
Jim McDonough.

Dead at 49. That stuff
about his heart was no joke.

Yeah, I know. Sat down to a bowl
of oatmeal, had a heart attack.

- He had nine kids.
- Oh, sad.

Maybe you shouldn't unload such
a large brood into the world, no offense.

She's taking us to Paris.
It's the first stamp on her passport.

- That's awesome.
- Sasha thinks I need a vacation.

Yeah. I heard they roughed you up
pretty good about those results.

- He's up for tenure.
- People get feisty, but it'll work out.

You gotta finish your book now.
Publish or perish, right?

Actually, I got sidetracked
working on the small world problem.

For the Small World Problem,
we asked people in Kansas and Omaha

to mail a packet to a person
in Sharon, Massachusetts.

The instructions are simple.

There's a target person.

In this case, a stockbroker
named Jacobs in Sharon, Mass.

Assuming they don't know this person,
people are asked to mail the folder

to someone who might know him.

They can send it to a friend,
relative, or acquaintance,

but they have to send it,
and this is key,

to a person they know
on a first-name basis.

There's a roster to fill out and a batch
of postcards to mail back to Harvard

to track the process.

Will it work? We don't know.

A woman in Omaha sends the folder
to a high school friend, a bank clerk,

in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

She sends it to man in Belmont,
Massachusetts, a publisher,

who sends it to a tanner in Sharon,

the tanner sends it to his brother-in-law,
a sheet metal worker, also in Sharon,

who sends it to a dentist,
who sends it to a printer,

who sends it to Mr. Jacobs.

Seven links in the chain.

The average chain, in fact,
involves 5.5 links.

That is, we determine that less
than six degrees of separation exist

between you
and several million strangers

who you may or may not encounter
in your lifetime.

When we understand the structure
of this communication net,

we stand to grasp a good deal more
about the fabric of society.

Maybe it's not necessarily justified,
this common human complaint.

The feeling that we're all cut off,
alienated, and alone.

I don't need to go into detail
to hide the things I remember,

when I was 16, in Bucharest.

The killings, torture, terror.

- Why are you bringing this up now?
- It's relevant.

The man was just turned down
for tenure at Harvard.

You wish to give the tragedy
some perspective.

It's not just that.
Because, bear with me,

they took people to the slaughterhouse
and strung them on meat hooks, still alive.

Cut open their bellies like cattle.

A five-year-old boy.

And they watched the entrails
spill out, the blood drain,

and they wrote notes and they pinned
the papers to the bodies.

"Kosher."

- Serge was just giving me a lesson in...
- Reality?

The pogroms, in Romania during the war.

The Iron Guard,

they lit people on fire,
threw them off buildings.

This is my charming way of saying
your husband's work is very important...

and timely.

Because the techniques change,
the victims change,

but it's still a question.
How do these things happen?

How are they institutionalized?

The Algerian War, the tortures.

- Do you know about this in the States?
- Yeah, of course.

You should do the obedience
experiments in Europe, Stanley.

France, Germany. Recreate them.

Will it be different?

- I don't think so.
- Who would fund them?

The experiments are unethical. Remember?

No tenure, no funding.

And the IRBs? The IRBs, yes,

basically you cannot do
these experiments

without submitting something
to the Internal Review Board.

He'll finish his book,

and then Stanley wants to move on from
the obedience experiments, and why not?

Well...

you look under a rock, ugly things
crawl out, and we have to face them.

Your other experiments,
the letters, the maps,

clever, hopeful, but...

you have to get back
to the obedience experiments.

- I do. I have to.
- Yes, Stanley.

You have no choice.

My new job at City University
of New York

involves a jump in pay
and full professorship.

The head of the department
of social psychology.

The City of New York
is a major laboratory,

to be utilized in the research and training
of graduate students in social psychology.

That's from the CUNY brochure.

I wrote it.

Sasha finds an apartment for us in Riverdale
with a great view of the Hudson.

Marc was born in 1967.
He hardly remembers Cambridge.

Even, or especially when nothing
decisive is happening,

time refuses to stand still.

I walk to the station every morning,
take the train into this city.

I enjoy the routine.

Today's assignment.

Get on a local bus, and then
with the bus in motion and loud enough

to be heard by your fellow passengers,
sing your favorite song.

Any song we want?

Just as long as you know the words
and can sing them loud and clear.

Pair up. Non-singer takes notes,
then switch roles.

You may say, "so what...

singing a song, anyone can do that."

Or, "I don't have to do that,
I'm an individual, not a conformist."

Or, "This is silly, it doesn't change
the world to sing a song."

My answer to you is simply this.

Get on the bus and sing.

Now go, right now. Come on.

No humming.

My next guest is professor of psychology
at the Graduate Center,

the City University in New York.

He's written a fascinating book,
a disturbing book.

Obedience To Authority:
an Experimental View,

just published by Harper & Row.

Please welcome a very creative,
very controversial sociopsychologist.

Stanley Milgram. Doctor. Dr. Milgram.

So your subjects, they thought
the shocks were real,

that they were delivering 450 volts,
65% of them.

But they were not particularly
aggressive or sadistic people.

They were a representative cross-section
of the average American citizen

living within range of Yale University.

I thought, yes, we'd do
the experiment in New Haven,

and there'd be very limited obedience,

and then we'd recreate
the experiment in, say, Berlin,

and find the rate of obedience
to be much higher.

Saved a bit on airfare, didn't you?

So, let me get this straight.

You did the experiment
in the early 60's?

And here we are, 1974,

and your book still feels like news.

Why is that?

People don't have the resources
to resist authority.

That's what the experiment teaches us.
But people don't wanna hear it.

The experiment explains a kind of...

flaw in social thinking.

A deadening,
a suspension of moral value.

What would you say to your critics, critics
who would insist the moral lapse is yours?

One of them cites
"the extremely callous,

deceitful way the experiments
were carried out."

Another calls them
"morally repugnant, vile,"

"Milgram belongs on the other end
of the shock machine."

There certainly is a certain kind
of Kafkaesque quality

- to the experiments.
- Kafkaesque?

The experiment taught me
something about the...

plasticity of human nature.

Not the evil, not the aggressiveness,
but a certain kind of malleability.

65% of volunteers were obedient.

That left 35% who recognized
a moral breach,

took responsibility
for their actions and resisted.

- There is no permanent tissue damage.
- That's your opinion.

If he doesn't want to continue,
I'm taking orders from him.

The experiment requires you continue.
You have no other choice.

If this were Russia maybe,
but not in America.

But obedience, compliance,
was more common.

You tell yourself: "I wouldn't do that.
I'd never do that."

But then, what did Montaigne say?

"We are double in ourselves.

What we believe we disbelieve,
and we cannot rid ourselves

of what we condemn."

Another one of my experiments.

Hank, a CUNY grad student,
was the designated "crowd crystal"

staring up at a fixed point in space,

looking up at a non-existent
"something".

As you multiply the confederates,
the people who stare up

because we've recruited them
to stare up,

the number of people who actually stop
and look increases exponentially.

Meanwhile, Obedience To Authority

gets translated into eight languages
and nominated for a national book award.

October 24th, 1974, 4:25pm.

Sheila Jarcho, J-A-R...

- I know how to spell it, Stanley.
- ...C-H-O,

working on the mental maps project,
comes in and tells me errors were made

in the neighborhood map,
already duplicated in some 500 copies.

Her facial expression
captures the attitude

that she's shown all along in her
capacity as research assistant.

Are my eyes really that close together?

On the whole, both men and women
are highly critical

when studying photographs of themselves.

The vanity factor's extraordinary
when people judge their own image.

Do you ever worry that everything's
sort of an anti-climax

since the obedience experiments,
and that your work...

really everything you're doing,
is just a flash in the pan?

The truth is, you're invested
in the idea of authority

and you love lording it over all of us.

Me, the other students,
and even your wife.

- Me?
- Well, fuck yeah.

I work here because I get paid for it
and I actually think it's kind of fun.

Sheila, what's wrong with you?

Just keep doing what he tells you to do.

I don't get along with all my students.

The flash in the pan?

How many people can manage
even that flash?

I've done some psych experiments,
but in my mind

I'm still about to write
my great Broadway musical.

4:27 pm.

Paul Hollander, looking tan and fit,
pays a visit from Massachusetts.

- Tan and fit and miserable.
- I am so sorry, Paul.

Well, another marriage down the drain.
I should've seen it coming.

It's terrible, it's rotten.
But you look good.

The worst of it is she's erected
a Berlin Wall between me and my daughter.

Nice place you've got here.

It isn't Harvard, but thank you.

Harvard would never have given you
an office half as grand as this,

or found you as bewitching a secretary.

Well, I just go where the work is.

So, aren't you going
to take my picture, then?

I'm considering it.

Do you ever feel invincible one moment
and then worthless the next?

Yes and no.

The camera begins to attract
its own subject matter.

It's no longer a passive recorder,

but actively attracts
the people it records.

Stanley Milgram?

How did I get to be so old?

What is the Kierkegaard quote?

"Life can always be...

Only be understood backward."

October 24th, 1974, 4:29 pm.

Conversation with Paul Hollander interrupted
by the arrival of a messenger...

bearing, at last, the German edition
of Obedience To Authority.

- With crass barbed wire cover design.
- Mein Gott.

- What's your name?
- Thomas Shine.

Mind participating in my experiment?

- It depends.
- He just wants to take your picture.

Everybody's doing it.

- Okay. I need a signature.
- Oh, yes.

He's interested in the unacknowledged
power of photographic images.

Okay.

"Life can only be understood backwards

but has to be lived forwards."

Around this time, I was also
working on The Familiar Stranger.

We take photographs of commuters
on a train platform.

Each figure in the photographs
are given a number.

The photos are duplicated,
and a week later the students follow up.

Hello. I'm a student at CUNY.

Would you mind filling out
this questionnaire?

- Okay.
- Also,

do you recognize any of these people?

No.

- What about here?
- Well, that's me.

- Yes. Can you identify anyone else?
- Not by name.

Most commuters recognize, on average,

four individuals they see in their
daily routine but never speak to.

Familiar strangers.

Amongst these are "sociometric stars".

Figures that they not only recognize
but even fantasize about.

They wonder what kind of lives these
strangers lead, what their jobs are like.

And if they ran into each other
in another place,

or if some emergency jolted them
out of this routine,

they might start to speak,

actually know one another.

I teach at CUNY, and I see you
out here all the time

and I wonder about the things
you must see.

You look familiar. What do you teach?

Social psychology. "The City
of New York is a vast laboratory."

I had no idea you were English.
You're English?

- Yes.
- Assuming that accent is real.

- I saw you on TV.
- No?

Good Morning America.
I knew you looked familiar.

He tortures people with electric shocks.

- That isn't accurate.
- He's very controversial.

Have you read my book? Have you?

I don't get a chance to read
as much as I'd like to.

- It's okay.
- I read the review.

- Well, there were many reviews.
- It was The Times, wasn't it?

- Harsh.
- Yes, it was. It was harsh.

It was nominated for an award, but yeah,
who cares? Why disabuse yourself?

What?

I don't wanna make you
angry, ma'am. Just...

have a nice day, okay?
Abe, it was a pleasure meeting you.

I was bowled over when I first read
about it, and you in The Times,

and then I read the original material
and the scientific journals, and I mulled.

- You mulled?
- I mulled.

This mulling produced the idea
to do a TV play

of a hopefully high caliber,
for an accepted show,

of a decently adult level,
treating, in fictional form,

the kind of experiments
you performed and its aftermath.

Using it as a springboard
for my own characters

and situational inventions.

I... I kept this.

D'you see how yellow?

Stan, sorry, help me.
I was just wondering.

Your name, its derivation?

Milgram means "pomegranate" in Hebrew.
It's one of the seven fruits of the Bible.

I'm Jewish...
if that's what you're asking?

Apples is another, right?

Figs, grapes. Olives, they're a fruit?

Anyhow, when you point out
the parallels, the connections,

Hannah Arendt, The Banality Of Evil,

the My Lai massacre, all of that,
I see where you're coming from.

I'm here because a serious
situation is pending

with regard to the drama I propose.

Playhouse 90, the Columbia
Broadcasting System.

CBS.

Michele, ma belle. Ca Va?

Hi.

I was just gonna get some ice cream.

Whenever I'm up late like this,
which is a lot...

- I think of your grandfather.
- Sam.

Yeah, that was his name. Yeah.

- He died.
- That's right, in his sleep.

It's the luckiest way, people say,
not to know what's happening.

Why... why did he die?

Heart disease.

It was before you were born,
before your mother could meet him.

He was a baker,

- his specialty were cakes.
- He worked late.

I got it from him.
Maybe you'll get it from me.

Basically there are
three types of people.

That's what your research confirms.

There's the person
who makes things happen,

the person who watches things happen,

and the person who says,
"What happened?"

Right?

I'm a dramatist, I was explicit,
not a scientist.

Your work is a springboard
for revealing basic human truths.

You get your consultant's fee.
What's the problem?

It isn't about the money.

I'm sorry, she needs to speak
to you again. She says it's urgent.

Tell her to relax.

Excuse me.

Dr. Stanley?

Yes?

Mr. Bellak won't be back
in his office this afternoon.

Excuse me?

He can't talk to you today anymore.

He says you can visit the set.

Okay.

So, you sold him the rights?

No.

But it's a gray area.

But it's your book, it's your work,
it's your experiments.

Either you did it or you sold it
or you didn't. Right?

In the opinion of Harper's
legal department,

we don't have a supportable claim,
not on the basis of copyright infringement,

because the show is fiction.

Are we finished with this?

They gave me a consulting fee.
Is that enough?

Your father's turning
into a fictional character.

- Why?
- Yes, why?

- And why do they have to make you a goy?
- It's not about me. I'm just a springboard.

- Why?
- I don't know.

Oh, I see. So, you had no choice?

Look... I could just give the money back
but they'd make the show anyway.

Why don't I give the money back?

I'll give the money back!
That's a good idea.

You know what?
You don't have to be so snippy.

They don't just come in and sadistically
pull these switches, bing, bing,

they have an inner struggle not to obey.

Their inner pain
is the evidence to that.

Steven, what you're doing
is very important, and I love the design.

It's audacious.

And?

I am being careful,

which is why I've got tenure around here
long before black became popular.

It's tricky. Very tricky.

There'll be criticism of anything
breaking new ground.

There are times when your life
resembles a bad movie,

but nothing prepares you if your life
actually becomes a bad movie.

Here's Dr. Steven Turner, Steven/Stanley,
Turner/Milgram, of Rutledge University,

a bachelor and a WASP,
being played by William Shatner,

four years after
his last Star Trek episode.

Ossie Davis plays his colleague
and best friend.

I don't believe
you're adequately considering...

faculty reaction.

You may find yourself
teaching in Siberia.

This has to be somewhat weird for you.

Well, I've made some films
myself actually. Documentaries.

I think Ossie may have meant,
and I was wondering also,

do you have a best friend
who is, you know, a brother?

I mean this tradition
of a black best friend,

where did that come from?

You don't have
a black best friend, Bill?

No. Do you?

This character isn't me.
I'm just a springboard.

Did you know I did the first
interracial kiss in US TV history?

Star Trek, sure.

I kissed Nichelle Nichols on network TV.

Controversial, but you did it.

The network was... nervous.

They insisted we shoot
an alternative version,

but during the close up I did this...

First time, 1968,

in the history of TV.

I've read about
your experiments, Doctor.

Did you happen to use any black folk?

Yes, of course.

And the results?

They fared the same as everyone else.
Roughly 65% compliant.

You didn't force or threaten
anyone, right?

- No.
- You didn't twist anyone's arm?

- No, no.
- Didn't hold a gun to anyone's head?

You see, it brings to mind when
I was six or seven years old,

coming home from school.

Two policemen call me over
from their car.

"Come over here, boy. Come on over."

- Have I heard this one?
- No.

They tell me to get into the car,
and they take me to the precinct station.

Then one of them takes a jar of cane
syrup and pours it over my head.

And they both laugh

like it's the funniest thing
in the world.

I laugh too.

Then they give me hunks
of peanut brittle and let me go.

It took me 30 years
before I told anyone.

Where was this, Ossie? Down South?

Well, it doesn't matter where,
and that's my point.

You see, you don't have to go to Germany
to learn about obedience to authority.

This in the book. Actually, it's the tenth
chapter, which very few people get to.

The Tenth Level.

The agentic state,

in which the demands of the democratically
installed authority conflict with conscience.

The Banality Of Evil.

I don't take responsibility.
Do you take responsibility?

I take responsibility.
Now count that as wrong.

No response counts as wrong.

You pull the switch then, dammit,
come on, you pull the switch.

Mr. Dahlquist, that's your job.

No, I won't.
Nobody can learn anything like this.

There was a time, I suspect,

when men and women could give a fully
human response to any situation.

When we could be fully absorbed
in the world as human beings.

But more often, now...

people don't get to see the whole situation
but only some small part of it.

There's a division of labor, and people
carry out small, narrow, specialized jobs,

and we can't act without some
sort of direction from on high.

I call this "the agentic state".

The individual yields to authority,

and in doing so becomes alienated
from his own actions.

Mr. Dahlquist, you agreed to the rules.

The agentic state is "store policy".

It's "I'm just doing my job."

Or "That's not my job."

Or "I don't make the rules."
"We don't do that here."

"Just following orders." "It's the law."

In the agentic state, the individual
defines himself as an instrument

carrying out the wishes of others.

A soldier, a nurse,
an administrator. An actor.

A corporate employee,
or even, yes, academics and artists.

- Please continue.
- Oh, God. Oh, God.

- Mr. Dahlquist?
- Just shut up a minute!

Hold on.

- Come on, come on.
- Son of a bitch!

A person has a choice.

He or she chooses to become agentic.

But once you assume the role,

it's almost impossible to go back.

Wrong. 195 volts.

"Dance."

- Let me out of here! Let me out!
- Continue, please.

We always asked, "Is there anything
the man could've said

to stop you from administering
the shocks?"

And they'd always say:
"I don't think so. No."

I told you I have a heart condition!

Michele. Sit up here.

All right?

Could we get a couple of hot chocolates?
You want chocolate?

- Yes, please.
- Hot chocolates all around?

Yeah, yeah. Do you want anything?

Okay, no, we're fine.

I need you to stay put,
stay in your seats. Okay?

I'm sorry.

I could say it a thousand times
and mean it every time.

Marc, turn around in your seat.

Piaget.

You remember
when I was translating Piaget?

I hit this line about child development.

It's the specific point...

when the growing child
is able to recognize a gap

between what exists
and what might exist.

And it occurred to me,

we choose our reality
when we choose another person.

What does that mean?

Marriage is not a fantasy.

No, no, no.

Right. Right.

But it is a choice.

You have to know...

that I choose you.

Every day I choose you.

1984.

1984 was a big year for me.
My lecture fees peaked,

I was asked to speak all over the world,
about the obedience experiments...

of course... in relation
to Orwell's prophetic book.

A book that describes
a totalitarian world

where people aren't very good
at thinking for themselves.

Who can explain it?

Who can tell you why

Fools give you reasons

Wise men

Never try

1984 was also the year that I died.

I was 51.

Excuse me? We need to see
a doctor immediately.

I'm Stanley Milgram. This is my ID.

I believe I'm having
my fifth heart attack.

- Dr. Heissenbuttel...
- That's who treated me last time.

- You need to fill this out.
- The agentic personality.

No one can truly know
what they might or might not do

when presented with the demands
of a particular situation.

In 2008, a professor
at Santa Clara University

replicated the obedience experiments
and got roughly the same results.

Over 60% of volunteers
delivered the full shocks.

In 2010, the experiments were duplicated
on a French reality TV show,

Le Jeu de la Mort, The Game of Death.

Participants were egged on
by a live studio audience.

Over 80% went all the way.

Alexandra Milgram, Sasha,

continues to live in the apartment
we shared in Riverdale.

Our children live with their children
near Boston and Toronto.

Sasha never remarried.

The obedience experiments
are cited and discussed

in nearly every introductory
psychology textbook worldwide.

My obedience film is screened
for every incoming class at Westpoint.

And my methods and results continue
to be challenged, scorned, debunked,

yet every time a new outrage
is unleashed into the world,

sanctioned and systematic acts
of violence,

the obedience experiments
re-enter the conversation,

reframing unanswerable questions.

You could say we're puppets.

But I believe that we are puppets

with perception, with awareness.

Sometimes we can see the strings

and, perhaps, our awareness
is the first step in our liberation.

Some enchanted evening

You may see a stranger

You may see a stranger

Across a crowded room

And somehow you know

You know even then

That somewhere you'll see him

Again and again

Some enchanted evening

Someone may be laughing

You may hear him laughing

Across a crowded room

And night after night

As strange as it seems

The sound of his laughter

Will sing in your dreams

Who can explain it?

Who can tell you why?

Fools give you reasons

Wise men never try

Some enchanted evening

When you find your true love

When you feel him call you

Across a crowded room

Then fly to his side

And make him your own

Or all through your life you

Will dream all alone

Once you have found him

Never let him go

Once you have found him

Never

Let him

Go