[verdant]

Experiments like the Milgram experiment would not be considered ethical today because of the mental effect it has on the test subjects afterward (feeling bad about themselves for not stopping). I'm undecided if that's good or not - It just seems to have exposed a truth about human nature, which remains true even if you don't expose it. But, if it a lasting psychological impact on the test subjects... that doesn't seem desirable.

The point of the article is correct from a business standpoint as well as a moral one. Too often we fail to question processes and procedures because "that's the way its always been done."

[cicada]

The ethical concerns about the Milgram experiment are too varied to go into much detail here (if you're interested, http://books.google.com/books?id=U44OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA193 ) but the short, relevant, version is that the psychological impact was positive, not negative. 84% of those surveyed (out of 92% who participated) reported that they were "glad" or "very glad" to have participated in the experiment.

[verdant]

Very interesting. I was just going off the ethical arguments and data raised from a course I took while at the university where we studied the Milgram experiment.

I guess that's what I get for just going along with someone who was an "authority" on the subject.

[pmorici]

Who's to say it has to have a negative effect? If you told them it was fake after wards and then made them aware of how susceptible people were to that sort of thing they might be better able to resist next time they were in such a situation.

[mhb]

You may also be interested in The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/naziexp....

Also submitted here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=747561