If someone in a position of authority told you to like, stop walking on the grass, you would stop walking on the grass, right?
And if they told you to help someone's grandma cross the street, or pick up your dog's poop, or put your shoes on before you go into a store, you'd probably comply.
But what if they ordered you to physically hurt another person?
You're probably thinking "No way! I could never do something like that".
But there's a good chance you're wrong.
In the early 1960s, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram began what would become one of social psychology's most famed and chilling experiments.
Milgram began his work during the widely publicized trial of World War II Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
Eichmann's defense, along with other Nazis', for sending millions of people to their deaths, was that he was simply following the orders of his superiors.
And while that may have been true, it didn't fly in court and Eichmann was ultimately executed for his crimes.
But the question got Milgram to thinking, what might the average person be capable of when under orders?
