<P> The experiments began in July 1961, in the basement of Linsly - Chittenden Hall at Yale University, three months after the start of the trial of German Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem . Milgram devised his psychological study to answer the popular question at that particular time: "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?" The experiments have been repeated many times in the following years with consistent results within differing societies, although not with the same percentages around the globe . </P> <P> Three individuals were involved: the one running the experiment, the subject of the experiment (a volunteer), and a confederate pretending to be a volunteer . These three people fill three distinct roles: the Experimenter (an authoritative role), the Teacher (a role intended to obey the orders of the Experimenter), and the Learner (the recipient of stimulus from the Teacher). The subject and the actor both drew slips of paper to determine their roles, but unknown to the subject, both slips said "teacher". The actor would always claim to have drawn the slip that read "learner", thus guaranteeing that the subject would always be the "teacher". Next, the "teacher" and "learner" were taken into an adjacent room where the "learner" was strapped into what appeared to be an electric chair . The experimenter told the participants this was to ensure that the "learner" would not escape . The "teacher" and "learner" were then separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other . In one version of the experiment, the confederate was sure to mention to the participant that he had a heart condition . </P> <P> At some point prior to the actual test, the "teacher" was given a sample electric shock from the electroshock generator in order to experience firsthand what the shock that the "learner" would supposedly receive during the experiment would feel like . The "teacher" was then given a list of word pairs that he was to teach the learner . The teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner . The teacher would then read the first word of each pair and read four possible answers . The learner would press a button to indicate his response . If the answer was incorrect, the teacher would administer a shock to the learner, with the voltage increasing in 15 - volt increments for each wrong answer . If correct, the teacher would read the next word pair . </P> <P> The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks . In reality, there were no shocks . After the confederate was separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electroshock generator, which played prerecorded sounds for each shock level . After a number of voltage - level increases, the actor started to bang on the wall that separated him from the subject . After several times banging on the wall and complaining about his heart condition, all responses by the learner would cease . </P>

In milgrams studies learners who made errors were punished with