In “Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey Today?” Jerry M. Burger (2009) reported a high base rate of obedience, comparable to that observed by Stanley Milgram (1974). Another condition, involving a defiant confederate, failed to significantly reduce obedience. This commentary discusses the primary contributions of Burger's study in terms of (a) its novel methodological variation on Milgram's original paradigm (the “150-volt solution”) and (b) its attention to ethical concerns so as to minimize participant discomfort and ensure institutional review board approval. Burger's technique could unlock research on behavioral aspects of obedience, which has been essentially muted for several decades. However, Burger's intensive efforts to improve the ethics of the study may be exaggerated, are uncertain in their effectiveness, and pose impractical demands. Different procedures used by Milgram and Burger in the modeled refusal condition preclude a clear explanation for the results and challenge Burger's emphasis on the comparability of his and Milgram's experiments. This study documents the complexities of extending research on destructive obedience in the context of contemporary ethical guidelines.

Upon seeing at first the title of Jerry Burger's (2009) article—”Replicating Milgram”—it was as if “Breaking News!” had flashed across my screen, a stunning, even (dare I say) shocking, announcement. Academics are, of course, curious about any new paper in their area of interest, particularly one by an experienced, highly regarded researcher, but this was something quite different and special. If one digs deeply enough in the archives, one will locate several previous replications of Milgram's shock-administration paradigm (for reviews, see Blass, 2000; Miller, 1986, chap. 4) as well as research using different paradigms and measures of obedience (e.g., Brief, Buttram, Elliott, Reizenstein, & McCline, 1995; Meeus & Raaijmakers, 1995). These studies documented rates of obedience to authority (and the influence of situational factors on these rates) comparable to those shown by Milgram (1974). However, most of these experiments occurred decades...