Announcing the Obedience to Authority conference

Half a century ago, social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted the classic and controversial Obedience to Authority experiments at Yale University. Intended to determine how far people would go in obeying an instruction to harm another person, Milgram’s experiments produced a disturbing look into the power of authority and obedience. The experiments showed that ordinary people can quite easily become agents in a terrible and destructive process when commanded by an authority figure. Today, Milgram’s obedience research remains as important as it is controversial.

This summer, Nipissing University’s Muskoka campus is proud to host the 2013 Obedience to Authority Conference: Milgram’s Experiments 50 Years On, August 6 – 8.

The conference is bringing together international scholars and researchers to evaluate the value and meaning of Milgram’s research 50 years after it was first published. It features many influential Milgram scholars from around the world, including: Thomas Blass, professor of Social Psychology at the University of Maryland and the author of The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram, the only biography of Milgram yet published. Arthur G. Miller, professor of Psychology at Miami University, Ohio, and the author of The Obedience Experiments: A Case Study in Controversy in Social Science. Herbert Kelment, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics Emeritus at Harvard University, and author of Crimes of Obedience: Toward a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility. Gina Perry, from the University of Melbourne and author of Behind the shock machine: The untold story of the notorious Milgram psychology experiments.