It is likely that participants in Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments (conducted in the 1960s and 1970s) were willing to administer increasingly severe shocks to a confederate learner because when confronted with a confusing, unfamiliar, and upsetting situation, they would turn to the experimenter for clues as to how to proceed. This speculation in essence identifies as a source of participants' destructive obedience. Select an answer and submit. For keyboard navigation, use the up/down arrow keys to select an answer.