Table Of ContentNestar Russell
I
.
L
O
V
Milgram’s Obedience Experiments
and the Holocaust
Understanding Willing Participants, Volume 1
Nestar Russell
Understanding Willing
Participants, Volume 1
Milgram’s Obedience Experiments
and the Holocaust
Nestar Russell
University of Calgary
Calgary, AB, Canada
ISBN 978-3-319-95815-6 ISBN 978-3-319-95816-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95816-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018950507
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover image: © Keystone Pictures USA/Alamy Stock Photo
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Dedicated to Valerie Morse and other unruly
troublemakers I’ve met…
A
cknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to thank what I term my contract f aculty
sabbatical (cancer), which provided me with the necessary time and
space to finish this book. This book would simply never have come to
fruition without it. Special thanks goes to my long-standing mentor, pri-
mary Ph.D. supervisor, and collaborator Robert Gregory, a scholar with
both intelligence and wisdom whose vision, support, and influence has
been essential to my growth and development as a scholar. For many
years his belief in this project has been unwavering. Also, I must thank
my secondary Ph.D. supervisor Simone Gigliotti and postdoctoral super-
visor Hilary Earl, both of whom have had a great influence on me. As
Holocaust historians, their rigor and balance in such a complex and con-
troversial research area have been invaluable. A special thank you goes
to Tim Pearson, my copy editor, who so frequently was able to help
me see the forest for the trees. Thank you to Rachel Daniel at Palgrave
Macmillan who pushed hard for the publication of this book, along with
the help I obtained along the way from her assistant Kyra Saniewski.
I am also grateful for the efforts of Preetha Kuttiappan and Azarudeen
Ahamedsheriff during the production stage of this book. Alexandra
Milgram and Michele Marques must also be thanked for allowing me to
publish materials obtained from the Stanley Milgram Papers (along with
their provision of a photo of Stanley Milgram with his shock machine).
The reviewer’s critical insights were of great use when completing the
final draft. The ever-reliable Kate MacIntyre and Tony Anderson did
not fail me when I somewhat desperately asked them for help. Thanks
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
to Mél Hogan for helping me with the illustrations in Volume 1 and the
Holocaust historians—Hilary Earl, Karl Schleunes, and Annette Timm—
who kindly offered advice on certain chapters in Volume 2.
I am also very grateful for the help and insights of the following peo-
ple, who in various ways all kindly offered valuable advice and support
in the lead-up to and during the writing of this book: Dean Hay, Sal
Renshaw, Mark Crane, Annette Bolton, Wayne Pihema, Augustine
Brannigan, Omer Bartov, Serena Kataoka, Madona Saad, Trevor Bradley,
Gillian McCann, Jim Edmondson, Elizabeth Stanley, Johanna Fraser,
Brian Thorn, Stacey Perkins, Steve Cook, David Tabachnick, Gina Perry,
Sarah Anderson, Jane Snaider, John Picard, Graeme Whimp, Mark
Thornton, Anna McKenzie, and Sarah Winters.
Finally, I must thank my partner Susan and family—Mum, Dad, Kelly,
and Shelena—for all their support and understanding during the occa-
sional hard and many good times. Susan, especially, bore the brunt of
the stress during those hard times and therefore it was her unconditional
support that really made the writing of this book possible. For this I will
always be grateful.
Risks are taken in this book that made some of the more careful peo-
ple around me a little nervous. But because I think these risks are worth
taking, I must emphasize that all responsibility for this book (and I mean
it) rests with the author.
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 Germany’s “Ordinary Monsters” and the Holocaust 17
3 The Origins and Evolution of Milgram’s Obedience
to Authority Experiments 37
4 How Milgram Ensured Most Participants Completed
the First Official Experiment 55
5 The Obedience to Authority Variations and Milgram’s
Agentic State Theory 79
6 Academia’s Response to Milgram’s Findings and
Explanation 111
7 A New Theoretical Path: The Emergence of Milgram’s
Bureaucratic Machine 155
8 Explaining the New Baseline Condition’s High
Completion Rate 199
ix
x CONTENTS
9 The Shock Generator: The Most Powerful Single Factor
in the Obedience Studies 239
Bibliography 269
Index 285
l f
ist of igures
Fig. 3.1 A circa 1960 document titled “Studies in Obedience” 49
Fig. 4.1 Milgram’s sketch of an eleven-switch control panel dated
“1960.” Participants could see the person being “shocked”
through a semi-translucent screen (SMP, Box 17, Folder 246) 58
Fig. 4.2 12-switch prototype labeled (top left) “SHOCK
GENERATOR TYPE ZL DYSON INSTRUMENT
COMPANY WALTHAM MASS” (SMP, Box 45, Folder 160) 62
Fig. 4.3 Stanley Milgram with his 30 switch shock generator
(Photo courtesy of Alexandra Milgram), labeled
(top left) “SHOCK GENERATOR, TYPE ZLB, DYSON
INSTRUMENT COMPANY, WALTHAM, MASS.
OUTPUT 15 VOLTS—450 VOLTS” (Blass [2004, p. 79]) 69
Fig. 5.1 Milgram’s early post-experimental theoretical contemplations
(SMP, Box 46, Folder 164) 100
Fig. 5.2 Factors that contribute to the agentic shift and maintain the
participant within the obedience-generating agentic state
(For the original diagram, see Milgram [1974, p. 154]) 104
Fig. 6.1 An “IRATE” participant’s response after having taken part
in the Obedience studies (SMP, Box 44, Divider
“T.R.”, #0216) 117
Fig. 7.1 The protective measure “against legal claims”
(SMP, Box 46, Folder 163) 173
Fig. 8.1 Completion rates from 23 of the 24 conditions where
siding with the learner did or did not require participants
to initiate then engage in a confrontation with the
experimenter (Condition 21 is not included in this graph
xi
