It was very interesting to read about the later experiments too – when they had two other people also supposedly administering the electric shocks, but in reality accomplices of the researchers, those people’s actions had a strong influence on how the test subject behaved.

I suppose it cuts both ways, but it’s frightening to see how much more powerful authority and the desire to conform are than an individual’s moral compass.

While I was a subject [participant] in 1964, though I believed that I was hurting someone, I was totally unaware of why I was doing so. Few people ever realize when they are acting according to their own beliefs and when they are meekly submitting to authority. … To permit myself to be drafted with the understanding that I am submitting to authority’s demand to do something very wrong would make me frightened of myself. … I am fully prepared to go to jail if I am not granted Conscientious Objector status. Indeed, it is the only course I could take to be faithful to what I believe. My only hope is that members of my board act equally according to their conscience…