... the findings generalise to other settings, both ecological and temporal). In 1974, Milgram conducted a study to see whether participants would obey an experimenter - a person of authority, when instructed to administer potentially dangerous electric shocks to another person. The "learner" was connected to the shock equipment and asked a series of questions in which wrong answers resulted in a shock given by the participant. No shocks were actually given though, since the learner was a confederate of the experimenter and was pretending to receive the shocks. Obedience rates indicated that 65% of the participants were willing to give a potentially lethal shock to the learner. If the participants became hesitant of continuing, the experimenter would urge them to carry on, saying "It is absolutely essential that you continue." and the like. The experimental validity of this experiment is threatened by whether the participants actually believed that the shocks were real. ...

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