PERSPECTIVES ON OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY - THE LEGACY OF THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENTS

The experiments of Stanley Milgram on obedience to authority have achi eved a truly remarkable visibility one that is rare in the social scie nces. Although conducted over 30 years ago, Milgram's research is curr ently one of the most widely cited programs of studies in psychology F rom their inception, the obedience studies have also been controversia l. For many, they reveal something very illuminating about human natur e. They have also been, however, the recipient of scathing ethical and methodological criticism. While the controversial features of Milgram 's research have been well documented, the substantive core of Milgram 's concern, namely obedience to malevolent authority, has not received correspondingly careful attention. The main objectives of the article s in this issue are to track the progress of the impact of the obedien ce research in contemporary research and thought, and to suggest direc tions for the future. This introduction to the present issue provides an empirical and conceptual overview, of Milgram's research and conclu des by highlighting some major themes in the papers to follow.