"With numbing regularity good people were seen to knuckle under the
demands of authority and perform actions that were callous and
severe. Men who are in everyday life responsible and decent were
seduced by the trappings of authority, by the control of their
perceptions, and by the uncritical acceptance of the experimenter's
definition of the situation, into performing harsh acts. A
substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do,
irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of
conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a
legitimate authority"-- Stanley Milgram, 1965

Stanley Milgram was a psychologist who performed a series of
experiments that proved conclusively that obedience to authority was
so ingrained in the average US citizen they were prepared to cause
lethal harm to others when instructed by authority figures to do so.


All those who took part were first asked if they would be capable of
killing or inflicting severe pain on their fellow human beings. 100%
replied categorically 'no'.
http://tinyurl.com/cm6xq