Some years ago, there was a classic psychology experiment.  A
volunteer was recruited to help researchers in a lab administer
increasingly-painful electric shocks to a subject, ostensibly to see
how negative reinforcement would affect learning.

It turned out that the “subject” was actually a shill ... And the
volunteer was actually himself the one being tested: to see how
willing he’d be to cause harm to another, once absolved of any
personal responsibility by an authority figure (i.e., those conducting
the test).

I would like to find out who/where/when this experiment was conducted.

This was an experiment (or, more technically, a series of experiments)
devised by Stanley Milgram and performed during the early 1960s when
Milgram was at Yale.

Milgram described the experiment in Obedience to Authority (1974),
which was apparently adapted into the following article in Harper's
Magazine:

"The Perils of Obedience, by Stanley Milgram"
think-truth/wisdom unabashed
http://home.swbell.net/revscat/perilsOfObedience.htm

Here is a little background on Milgram and a brief summary of
Obedience to Authority:

"Milgram's Obedience to Authority"
A Student Handbook for Chuck Huff's Introduction to psychology
St. Olaf College
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/classes/handbook/Milgram.html

Another page reproduces a chart from Obedience to Authority on the
maximum shocks administered during the first four experiments:

"The Milgram Experiment: Maximum Shocks Administered in Experiments
1,2,3, and 4"
Mt. Holyoke College
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/milgram.htm

If you would like further background on Milgram, additional
description of the experiments and their significance, and other
sources of information in print, the following web sites and web page
should be helpful:

Stanleymilgram.com (hosted by Thomas Blass, Ph.D)
http://www.stanleymilgram.com/

Milgram Reenactment
http://www.milgramreenactment.org/pages/index.xml

"Stanley Milgram", complied by Heather Miller
Muskingum College: Department of Psychology
http://fates.cns.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/milgram.htm

- justaskscott-ga


Search term used on Google:

milgram

Fantastic!  I've been looking for this info for a long time.  Thanks again!

This experiment is depicted in a french film of the 70īs (very famous
film and director, unfortunantely I donīt remember right now!). He
made political films of the dictatorships in Grece, Chile among
others.
This experiment demonstrated how an average citizen would apply
torture to another human being if oredered to do so by an authority
(in this case, a "doctor" or scientist" suposedly conducting an
experiment), and how this was used by armies and police.
It crudely shows the human indiference to the suffering of others, and
how common citizens become instruments of dictators (concentration
camps were ruled by hundreds of "civil servants" who did their job
without questioning themselves, not just by a few exceptionally cruel
men!)

There is also a fairly recent movie, "Das Experiment," based on the
so-called Stanford prison experiment.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0250258

The french film was "I comme Icar.." (I as in Icarus). No clue for the
reason of such a name!