Stanley Milgram in the early 60s at Yale University.
In brief, Blass (1999: 955-978) states that Milgram's experiments involved offering money to subjects recruited from newspaper advertisements to participate in an experiment investigating memory and learning. Each subject was met by a stern looking experimenter in a white coat and a rather pleasant and friendly person who was said to be the co-subject. The experimenter explained that the experiment was designed to explore the role of punishment in learning, and that one of the subjects would be the "teacher" while the other subject would be the "learner." Lots (which were fixed to always yield the same result) were then drawn to determine roles, and it was decided that the individual who answered the ad would become the "teacher."
The co-subject was then placed in a room and strapped to a chair to prevent movement. An electrode was placed on his arm and the "teacher" (the true subject in the experiment) was taken into an adjoining roo
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