Would the human being be capable of committing the most atrocious crimes against humanity only by obedience to authority? This is a question that many scholars have asked themselves throughout the 20th century, especially after having witnessed massive crimes against humanity such as the extermination camps of the Third Reich or the wars between economic powers. Circumstances limit in which violence and death were taken with indifference by an important part of the population.
In fact, researchers have been a good group who have gone a step further and have tried to find the psychological keys that explain why, in certain circumstances, human beings are capable of transgressing our moral values.
Stanley Milgram, author of the test and the criminological relevance of the experiment.
Stanley Milgram was a psychologist at Yale University, who in 1961 conducted a set of experiments whose purpose was to measure the willingness of a participant to obey the orders of an authority, even when these orders could cause a conflict with his system of values and their conscience.