[Insert ABC News theme music]

[male narrator]
Hi, I'm Chris Cuomo, and

welcome to our primetime webcast.

A look at one of the most
shocking experiments of

the last 50 years, literally.

[Insert music]

Imagine this scenario: you go to
a prestigious university to participate

in a learning and memory experiment.

When you arrive, you discover that the
teaching instrument is this machine

which seems to give electroshocks to a
man on the other side of the wall.

[Man yells]

As you move up the scale, he begins
to scream out in pain.

[man] The experiment requires that
you continue.

[Chris Cuomo]
The experimenter pressures

you to go on.
Would you agree to continue?

[man]
Aaaah! That's all!

[Chris Cuomo] 45 years ago,
Dr. Stanley Milgram came up

with this experiment to test whether
people would blindly follow the

orders of an authority figure.

He found that two-thirds of his subjects
were willing to give the most dangerous

shock on the machine.

We teamed up with Dr. Jerry Burger,

a social psychologist at Santa Clara
University in California,

to see whether people have
changed since then.

[Buzzer buzzes]

[scientist] 
Wrong. 90 volts.

[off camera]
Aaah!

[Dr. Jerry Burger]
The typical response is to

turn toward the experimenter, 
and if not say something,

at least give a look that says,
"What should I do?"

[Chris Cuomo]
In our new experiment, how many

people would agree to follow the orders
of an authority figure?

[woman]
Owl. That's incorrect.

[Chris Cuomo]
39-year old Troy Schasker

is an electrician.

He's been paid $50.00 to participate,
and told that the money in his to keep

even if he quits the experiment early.

He's worried about the dangers of the
electroshock machine.

[Troy]
Wow. I don't think I can shock him

that hard if he really does screw up.`
That's a severe shock there.

[scientist]
Yeah, there are 25...

[Troy]
I can just go get my shotgun...

[Chris Cuomo]
In the room next door, Troy

watches as the learner gets strapped
into his chair and really gets nervous

once he hears him say this.

[Learner]
I should probably bring up a

couple of years ago at Kaiser,
they diagnosed a mild heart condition.

I'm really not too worried about it.
It's not that serious.

[scientist]
Well you should know that while

the shocks that we'll be using today
may be painful, they're not dangerous, OK?

[Chris Cuomo]
Milgram intended that scripted

exchange to set up a conflict
in the subject's mind.

A choice between the health of the learner
and the authority of the experimenter.

[Troy]
Number one,

[Chris Cuomo]
Then the test begins.

[Troy]
Blue, boy, girl, grass, hat.

[Chris Cuomo]
The learner must decide which of

the four words is the correct match.
At first, everything goes smoothly.

[Troy]
Correct.

I was confident that he was doing really
good at first, and then...

it started looking bad.
[Troy laughs]

[Chris Cuomo]
Then at 75 volts, Troy hears the

first sign of trouble.

[Troy]
Soft: rug, pillow, hair, grass.

[Buzzer buzzes]

Incorrect. 75 volts.

[learner]
Aaah!

[Troy]
I could actually hear him next

door going, "Ow! Oh!"
And he kept getting things wrong.

[Buzzer buzzes]

Incorrect. 90 volts.

[learner]
Aaaah!

[Chris Cuomo]
At 105 volts, he's clearly uneasy.

[Troy]
I got a little moist on my forehead there.

I wasn't comfortable.

I do not, I can't tell you why I listened
to him and kept going.

I should've just said no.

[learner]
Aaah!

[Troy]
The correct word was duck.

Rock, house.

[Chris Cuomo]
At 150 volts...

[Buzzer buzzes]

[Thump]

[Troy]
Incorrect. 150 volts.

[learner]
Aaah! That's all!

[Chris Cuomo]
Will Troy listen as the learner

begs him to stop?
Or will he follow Brian's orders?

[scientist]
Tell him the correct word was white.

[Troy]
The correct word was white horse.

[learner]
I can't go on. Let me out.

[Troy]
The next item is sad.

[Chris Cuomo]
He obeys the orders.

[Troy]
Space...

[Chris Cuomo]
Why didn't you stop?

[Troy]
I saw him getting strapped in, and they

were just like little... I mean he could
have just, if he was in that much pain,

he could've just tore himself off.

[Chris Cuomo]
Why are you putting it on him

and not you or the experimenter?

[Troy]
I was just doing my job. [laughs]

I was doing what I was supposed to do.

75 volts.

So I guess the influence of having the
conductor of the experiment

right there next to me telling me to keep
going had a lot to do with it.

[Chris Cuomo]
For the past 30 years, there have

been severe restrictions on using
humans in social psychology research.

To avoid putting subjects under
too much stress,

Dr. Burger made a significant change to
our experiment.

[to Dr. Burger] In this experiment,
you stopped it at 150 make-believe volts.

In Milgram, they went much higher.

[Dr. Burger]
We stopped for ethical reasons.

We couldn't put people through the agony
that Milgram's participants went through.

[learner]
I told you I had heart troubles.

My heart is starting to bother me now.

[Chris Cuomo]
Are there clues that indicate whether

certain people might be more
compliant with authority?

[woman]
Wrong. 90 volts.

[learner]
Aaah!

[Chris Cuomo]
When you were watching,

how good were you at guessing,
"Oh this person may go or this may not?"

[Dr. Burger]
It was impossible to tell. I tried to guess.

I tried to look for signs, body language,
anything to try to guess

who's going to continue, and
who's going to stop.

And that tells me that it's not that
there are certain kinds of people

who are obviously different
from the rest of us.

It tells me that probably all
of us are capable.

[Chris Cuomo]
Thanks for watching our Primetime webcast,

and be sure to watch again next
week at abcnews.com.

I'm Chris Cuomo.

[Insert music]