The Milgram paradigm after 35 years: Some things we now know about obedience to authority

Guided by the belief that we cannot make broad extrapolations from the obed ience studies without first firmly establishing what has and has not been f ound using the paradigm itself, this article draws on 35 years of accumulat ed research and writings on the obedience paradigm to present a status repo rt on the following salient questions and issues surrounding obedience to a uthority: (a) How should we construe the nature of authority in the obedien ce experiment? (b) Do predictions of those unfamiliar with the obedience ex periment underestimate the actual obedience rates? (c) Are there gender dif ferences in obedience? and (d) Have obedience rates changed over time?