Initially, the experiment began fairly well as the learner repeated back the correct answers. However, when the learner began to make errors, the teacher was instructed by the man in the white coat to administer punishment shocks. Of course, the actor in the next room was not really receiving any shocks but duly gave a more and more distressing performance as the intensity of the punishment shocks increased. At first, he started to complain that the shocks hurt. Then they were painful. As the punishment voltages increased, so did the intensity of the screams. Soon, the learner was pleading with the teacher and telling him that he had a heart condition. Many of the participants protested that they could not go on but the man in the white coat replied impassively, "Please continue." At this point, the teachers were clearly stressed, shaking, and sweating, and yet they went on. Even after the intercom went silent and they reached the 20th level of 300 volts, they were told that the learner's failure to answer the question was an error and that the teacher must proceed with the punishment.

What do you think you would do in such a situation? Before Milgram had started his study, he consulted a panel of 40 psychiatrists and asked what they predicted that members of the public would do. As experts on human psychology, they agreed that less than one in 100 participants would go all the way to the end. How wrong could they be? It turned out that two out of every three of the participants in Milgram's shocking study went all the way to the end at 450 volts. They were prepared to kill another human being at the request of the man in the white coat.