Milgram's Obedience to Authority Experiment

Students are given a series of increasingly unusual instructions during a normal class review. By observing who complies and who resists, the demonstration models the principles of Stanley Milgram’s obedience to authority experiment, which showed that people often follow questionable orders when they come from an authority figure.

1. Begin reviewing a past lesson or homework assignment.
2. Casually introduce an odd but harmless instruction (e.g., pencils must be kept on laps instead of desks).
3. Progressively issue stranger instructions (e.g., feet on the desk rail, snapping a pencil in half).
4. Provide short, barely plausible explanations for each instruction (e.g., “a study shows breaking pencils relieves stress”).
5. Deliver the instructions as part of the flow of class to minimize discussion or questioning.
6. Observe who follows the orders, who resists, and how reactions shift as the tasks escalate.
7. After the last instruction, ask one compliant student why they obeyed and one resistant student why they did not.

📄 Milgram’s Obedience Experiments: Don’t Be Too Shocked! - U4SC: https://academy4sc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2020/02/Milgrams-Obedience-Experiments-Google-Docs.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

• Use a peer or another adult to give the instructions instead of the teacher, and compare levels of obedience.
• Have different groups perform different unusual tasks and compare compliance rates.
• Run the activity across different age groups or class settings to test how obedience changes.

• Avoid instructions that could cause harm, distress, or destruction of personal property.
• If requiring an object to be broken (e.g., snapping pencils), provide inexpensive materials.
• Ensure students are debriefed immediately afterward so they understand the false explanations were part of the lesson.
• Frame the exercise carefully so students don’t feel coerced into uncomfortable actions.

• Why did some students obey even when instructions seemed unreasonable? (Obedience to authority, fear of standing out, trust in the teacher’s authority.)
• Why did others refuse or resist? (Critical thinking, personal values, skepticism of authority.)
• How does this classroom exercise compare to Milgram’s original obedience studies? (Both test willingness to comply with authority even when orders conflict with personal judgment.)
• What lessons can we take about blind obedience in everyday life and history? (Risks of harmful conformity, importance of questioning authority.)