We are now at stage two. Your IRB has approved Milgram's experiments and he conducted the trials. His work has been successful, he reports, and he would like to conduct a follow-up study. He approaches the IRB for permission. You are concerned that some of his subjects may be subjected to inappropriate levels of stress. Milgram has filmed all of the trials, so you review the films.

Review the three videos, "Intro," "Complete" and "Refuse."

After watching the tape of Experiment 5, you note that while most subjects are obedient, a few are defiant. You also note deep evidence of tension in many subjects. "There were in some subjects striking reactions to emotional strain."

Despite the increasingly strenuous objections from the learner and the references to heart pain, 65% of the subjects administered the maximum shock. This was the same as in "remote" no feedback classroom version, although 25% stopped shocking the learner before stage 20. None of the subjects in the remote version stopped before stage 20. We acknowledge that far more subjects than we expected are experiencing the tension that builds up in the experiment when it continues to the end.

In his current approach to the IRB, Milgram appears dismissive of the stress of his subjects. "Momentary excitement is not the same as harm." Results from questionnaire completed by respondents after receiving the report on the study: 84% indicated that they were "glad" to have been in the experiment, and four-fifths of subjects "felt that more experiments of this kind should be carried out." Present Milgram's arguments about the importance of the findings. The experiment should not be discontinued because the results are unexpected and unpleasant. "If, instead, every one of the subjects has broken off at 'slight shock,' or at the first sign of the learner's discomfort, the results would have been pleasant, and reassuring, and who would protest [continuing the experiment.]"

Milgram's new approach seeks permission to continue the experiment with introduction of more variations. What questions would you ask as an IRB member at this stage? Would you approve continuing the experiment? If so, would you impose additional conditions? If not, why are you not concerned about the stress to participants? Note that Milgram was sensitive to the subject's stress but was also willing to use experimental formats that produced very high stress levels. In the touch-proximity experiment, "The scene is brutal and depressing: his [the teacher's] hard, impassive face showing total indifference as he subdues the screaming learner and gives him shocks."

Will you vote to allow Milgram to proceed? Why, or why not?