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Although the participants knew the woman was unreal, six of them chose to stop the
experiment before it was due to end on the woman’s 20th incorrect response. A
further 6 said it had occurred to them to stop early because they had negative
feelings about what was happening. By contrast, of eleven participants who
completed a control experiment in which they only interacted with the (unseen)
woman by text, just one chose to stop the experiment early, and no others said it
had occurred to them to stop.
There was further evidence that the participants who could see and hear the
computerised woman were affected by the experiment as if it were real. Their
stress responses were raised (as judged by sweating and heart rate) compared with
the 11 control participants. And on those trials in which the woman protested, the
participants tended to give her longer to answer before administering the shock.
Some participants emphasised the correct answer among the available choices, as if
trying to help the woman avoid a shock.
Slater, M., Antley, M., Davison, A., Swapp, D., Guger, C., Barker, C., Pistrang, N. &
Sanchez-Vives, M.V. (2006). A Virtual Reprise of the Stanley Milgram Obedience
Experiments. PLOS ONE, 1, e39 (open access).
Editor's note - published just a few days ago, this study is from the very first issue of open access
publisher PLOS' brand new general science journal PLOS ONE.